Electrophysiological signatures of visual statistical learning in 3‐month‐old infants at familial and low risk for autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Visual statistical learning (VSL) refers to the ability to extract associations and conditional probabilities within the visual environment. It may serve as a precursor to cognitive and social communication development. Quantifying VSL in infants at familial risk (FR) for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) provides opportunities to understand how genetic predisposition can influence early learning processes which may, in turn, lay a foundation for cognitive and social communication delays. We examined electroencephalography (EEG) signatures of VSL in 3‐month‐old infants, examining whether EEG correlates of VSL differentiated FR from low‐risk (LR) infants. In an exploratory analysis, we then examined whether EEG correlates of VSL at 3 months relate to cognitive function and ASD symptoms at 18 months. Infants were exposed to a continuous stream of looming shape pairs with varying probability that the shapes would occur in sequence (high probability‐deterministic condition; low probability‐probabilistic condition). EEG was time‐locked to shapes based on their transitional probabilities. EEG analysis examined group‐level characteristics underlying specific components, including the late frontal positivity (LFP) and N700 responses. FR infants demonstrated increased LFP and N700 response to the probabilistic condition, whereas LR infants demonstrated increased LFP and N700 response to the deterministic condition. LFP at 3 months predicted 18‐month visual reception skills and not ASD symptoms. Our findings thus provide evidence for distinct VSL processes in FR and LR infants as early as 3 months. Atypical pattern learning in FR infants may lay a foundation for later delays in higher level, nonverbal cognitive skills, and predict ASD symptoms well before an ASD diagnosis is made.

Dysfunctions in Infants’ Statistical Learning are Related to Parental Autistic Traits

“…Overall, our data provide the first behavioral evidence of atypical SL in infants at risk for BAP by virtue of having a parent who shows high autistic traits. This finding is in line with those showing SL impairment in ASD children (Jeste et al 2015;Scott-Van Zeeland et al 2010) and infant siblings of children with ASD (Marin et al 2020) and confirms the importance of using implicit measures to understand the functioning of SL processes in typical and atypical population. Indeed, in studies where the ability to discriminate between statistically structured and non-structured streams of stimuli was tested in a task requiring participants' explicit responses, ASD adults and children performed just like TD individuals (e.g.…”

“…The presence of an SL impairment in ASD is further confirmed by a recent ERP study that has tested infants at familial risk to develop ASD by virtue of having a sibling with a diagnosis (Marin et al 2020 ). Using a visual SL task in which infants were presented with sequences of shapes, the authors reported an atypical neural activation in infant siblings of ASD children compared with TD infants.…”

“…Since the ability to track statistical relationships is modulated by the cognitive, memory, and attentional states of the learners (Krogh et al 2013 ), it is also possible that the developmental changes in perceptual/cognitive processes might explain the reported age differences in performance in SL tasks among ASD individuals. Indeed, most of the studies with older children (range: 8–17 years of age; Haebig et al 2017 ; Mayo and Eigsti 2012 ; Roser et al 2015 ) did not find group differences between ASD and controls, while studies with younger children (range: 3–months-8 years; Jeste et al 2015 ; Jones et al 2018 ; Marin et al 2020 ) often reported impaired performance in ASD compared to TD participants. Accordingly, some studies have documented atypical profiles in young children with ASD that do not always persist across development (e.g.…”

“…In light of earlier demonstrations that ASD-related traits vary in the general population and correlate with a genetic predisposition towards ASD (Wheelwright et al 2010 ), it is plausible to hypothesize the presence of an association between infants' SL abilities and the intensity of sub-clinical traits in their parents. Dysfunctions in SL mechanisms have been linked to ASD symptoms (Jeste et al 2015 ; Marin et al 2020 ) and ASD traits (Parks et al 2020 ; Stevenson et al 2017 ), pointing to the idea that perturbations in SL mechanisms might depend on the variation of ASD sub-symptoms severity. The investigation of SL in infants with parental BAP appears important to evaluate the potential relationship between SL and the development of subclinical social impairments.…”

The autistic brain can process local but not global emotion regularities in facial and musical sequences

“…Nevertheless, a few studies report that individuals with ASD are able to learn statistical relations in long sequences (at least with a duration of 108 s) (Haebig et al, 2017; Mayo & Eigsti, 2012; Roser et al, 2015), despite showing atypical neural responses to these relations (Jeste et al, 2015; Marin et al, 2020; Scott‐Van Zeeland et al, 2010). In fact, regularities can occur on different timescales, short (local) or long (global), constituting a local versus global distinction (Sanders & Poeppel, 2007).…”