Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on the Mismatch Negativity Features of Deviated Stimuli in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a devastating mental disorder in children. Currently, there is no effective treatment for ASD. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which is a non-invasive brain stimulation neuromodulation technology, is a promising method for the treatment of ASD. However, the manner in which tDCS changes the electrophysiological process in the brain is still unclear. In this study, we used tDCS to stimulate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex area of children with ASD (one group received anode tDCS, and the other received sham tDCS) and investigated the changes in evoked EEG signals and behavioral abilities before and after anode and sham stimulations. In addition to tDCS, all patients received conventional rehabilitation treatment. Results show that although conventional treatment can effectively improve the behavioral ability of children with ASD, the use of anode tDCS with conventional rehabilitation can boost this improvement, thus leading to increased treatment efficacy. By analyzing the electroencephalography pre- and post-treatment, we noticed a decrease in the mismatch negativity (MMN) latency and an increase in the MMN amplitude in both groups, these features are considered similar to MMN features from healthy children. However, no statistical difference between the two groups was observed after 4 weeks of treatment. In addition, the MMN features correlate well with the aberrant behavior checklist (ABC) scale, particularly the amplitude of MMN, thus suggesting the feasibility of using MMN features to assess the behavioral ability of children with ASD.

A systematic review of randomized controlled trials on efficacy and safety of transcranial direct current stimulation in major neurodevelopmental disorders: ADHD, autism, and dyslexia

“…DLPFC was the most often-targeted region (Fig. 3b,d) and here, anodal tDCS over the left dlPFC (in 7 out of 11 studies) [53][54][55][70][71][72][73] was the most often applied protocol in ASD. In one study 74 , a significant improving effect of bilateral anodal dlPFC tDCS was observed on overall behavioral symptoms.…”

“…The risk of bias for each tDCS study in ASD is reported in Figure 2b 53 , the source of other bias is related to comorbidity of patients. Most of the enrolled patients were accompanied by degrees of comorbidities including anxiety disorder, ADHD, and attenuated psychosis syndrome.…”

“…Of 11 included studies, only 1 study targeted right TPJ and vmPFC, two key regions in the theory of mind in ASD, and found that anodal vmPFC but not r-TPJ tDCS significantly improved ToM in children with ASD 76 . 9 of 11 studies had repeated protocols in which tDCS was applied on consecutive days for 10, 12, 15, or 20 sessions [52][53][54][55]70,71,[73][74][75] . All of these studies reported significant improvement of their outcome variables (mostly ASD symptoms) and repeated daily sessions…”

A systematic review of randomized controlled trials on efficacy and safety of transcranial direct current stimulation in major neurodevelopmental disorders: ADHD, autism, and dyslexia

“…and here, anodal tDCS over the left dlPFC (in 7 out of 11 studies) (Amatachaya et al, 2014;Amatachaya et al, 2015;Han et al, 2022;Kang et al, 2018;Qiu et al, 2021;Sun et al, 2022;Toscano et al, 2019) was the most often applied protocol in ASD. In one study (Hadoush et al, 2020) on behavioral symptoms (Toscano et al, 2019), and anodal stimulation over the primary motor cortex on motor skill training in children with ASD (Mahmoodifar & Sotoodeh, 2020).…”

“…The risk of bias for each tDCS study in ASD is reported in Figure 2b. In Sun et al (2022), the source of the other bias is related to comorbidity of patients. Most of the enrolled patients were accompanied by degrees of comorbidities including anxiety disorder, ADHD, and attenuated psychosis syndrome.…”