Event-related potential response to auditory social stimuli, parent-reported social communicative deficits and autism risk in school-aged children with congenital visual impairment

Abstract

Communication with visual signals, like facial expression, is important in early social development, but the question if these signals are necessary for typical social development remains to be addressed. The potential impact on social development of being born with no or very low levels of vision is therefore of high theoretical and clinical interest. The current study investigated event-related potential responses to basic social stimuli in a rare group of school-aged children with congenital visual disorders of the anterior visual system (globe of the eye, retina, anterior optic nerve). Early-latency event-related potential responses showed no difference between the VI and control group, suggesting similar initial auditory processing. However, the mean amplitude over central and right frontal channels between 280 and 320ms was reduced in response to own-name stimuli, but not control stimuli, in children with VI suggesting differences in social processing. Children with VI also showed an increased rate of autistic-related behaviours, pragmatic language deficits, as well as peer relationship and emotional problems on standard parent questionnaires. These findings suggest that vision may be necessary for the typical development of social processing across modalities.

Adaptive behaviour and quality of life in school-age children with congenital visual disorders and different levels of visual impairment

“…Ratings of strengths and difficulties (SDQ) further indicated that peer relationships are an area of concern for children with VI. Difficulties in social function have been consistently observed across pre-school, middle childhood, and adolescents in congenital VI (Bathelt et al, 2017;Greenaway et al, 2017;Jure et al, 2016;Tadić et al, 2010). Reported difficulties were most pronounced for children with S/PVI, but ratings in the MVI group overlapped with both the S/PVI and control group.…”

“…Difficulties in the social domain may arise due to multiple influences. First, social cognition may develop differently in children with VI (Bathelt et al, 2017;Dale & Salt, 2008), potentially because salient social information like facial expressions are less accessible to children with congenital VI. Other constraints may arise from reduced opportunities for social interaction.…”

“…Adaptive behaviour, strengths and difficulties in everyday life, and quality of life were assessed using parent questionnaires commonly used in clinical practice. This study was part of a larger study where children had direct visual acuity and neuropsychological and neuroimaging assessments (Bathelt et al, 2016;Bathelt, Dale, & de Haan, 2017). The current analysis investigated if different levels of visual impairment were associated with reduced adaptive ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOUR IN VISUAL IMPAIRMENT 7 behaviour and if adaptive behaviour was related to everyday difficulties and to quality of life in children with visual impairment.…”

What’s in a name? A preliminary event-related potential study of response to name in preschool children with and without autism spectrum disorder

“…In early sensory processing, a greater N100 response to the subject’s own name (SON) versus an unfamiliar name has been reported for both adults [5,6] and school-aged children [7], although this may reflect detection of a familiar name rather than SON specifically [6]. Multiple studies have identified another early ERP response, believed to be an index of pre-attentive auditory detection, called SON negativity [8–10].…”

“…Key and colleagues demonstrated that children 4–12 years of age exhibited increased P300 responses to both SON and the name of a familiar other in a passive oddball paradigm [19]. Finally, Bathelt et al examined ERP response to SON and an unfamiliar name in eight- to twelve-year-old typically developing children and children with congenital visual disorders [7]. Results indicated an enhanced N100 response to SON in both groups and a SON negativity component in the typically developing children that was attenuated over mid-central and right-frontal regions in the visually impaired group.…”