Impaired prefrontal gamma band synchrony in autism spectrum disorders during gaze cueing

Abstract

Orienting to eye gaze is a vital social skill that is absent or developmentally delayed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Neural synchrony in the gamma frequency band is believed to be involved in perceptual and cognitive functions such as eye-gaze processing, and has been found to be abnormal in ASD. The current study used magnetoencephalography to measure neural synchrony in the gamma frequency band in neurotypicals (n=8) and individuals with ASD (n=10) while performing a directional eye-gaze processing task. Results support impaired generation of neural synchrony in the gamma frequency band during eye-gaze processing in ASD. Impaired gamma oscillatory activity in the prefrontal cortex may be associated with impairments in social cognitive functions such as eye-gaze processing in ASD.

γ-Band Abnormalities as Markers of Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Three MEG studies have investigated gamma responses in adolescents with autism during tasks requiring participants to view faces [64-66]. Wright et al [65] and Khan et al [66] both included a task that involved viewing faces relative to a baseline condition.…”

“…Richard et al [64] also utilized face stimuli to probe MEG gamma responses in 10 adolescents with autism and 8 typically developing adolescents. However, the face stimuli in this study were presented in a gaze-cueing task, in which participants had to respond if the face was looking at a peripheral target.…”

Magnetoencephalography in the study of children with autism spectrum disorder

“…Until 2010, MEG studies of neurodevelopmental disorders were rarely focused on children under 6 years old, whose heads were too small for whole‐head MEG systems. As shown in Figures and , after the development of the custom child‐sized MEG in 2010, researchers could focus on brain activity in young children (e.g., 3–7 years old), which had been the missing link in brain‐developmental neurophysiological data. Furthermore, in 2014, a novel whole‐head infant MEG system was developed .…”

“…Thirty‐eight articles met our selection criteria for inclusion. With regard to the age of the participants, 31 of 38 previous studies focused primarily on school‐aged (6 years old at the youngest) children . Seven of 38 previous studies included many preschool children .…”

“…As shown in Figure , five of 38 previous studies used a custom child‐sized MEG system, which enables the study of young children (e.g., 2–7 years old) . With regard to the method of MEG analysis, 24 of 38 previous studies focused on the evoked (or induced) responses to external stimuli (i.e., auditory, visual or somatosensory stimuli) . Two of 38 studies focused on brain activity during cognitive tasks (inhibitory control task) or while listening to a story .…”