Late attentional processes potentially compensate for early perceptual multisensory integration deficits in children with autism: evidence from evoked potentials

Stefanou, Maria Elena; Dundon, Neil M.; Bestelmeyer, Patricia E. G.; Ioannou, Chara; Bender, Stephan; Biscaldi, Monica; Smyrnis, Nikolaos; Klein, Christoph

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-73022-2

Cited by 13 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…This is in line with results in the literature proposing alterations of MSI in ASD when using social information (for a review, see Feldman et al, 2018). Moreover, studies using a multisensory detection task of simple non-social information are clinical comparative studies (ASD vs Control subjects) and have demonstrated either equal multisensory facilitation to controls (Brandwein et al, 2015;de Boer-Schellekens et al, 2013;Stefanou et al, 2020;Stewart et al, 2016) or degraded multisensory facilitation in subjects with ASD (Ainsworth et al, 2021;Brandwein et al, 2013;Collignon et al, 2013;Molholm et al, 2020;Ostrolenk et al, 2019). Thus, our study is the first to investigate the mechanism of multisensory facilitation according to autistic traits and propose it as being improved in subjects with high-autistic traits.…”

Section: The Sensory Modality Effectssupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Thus, our study is the first to investigate the mechanism of multisensory facilitation according to autistic traits and propose it as being improved in subjects with high-autistic traits. This heterogeneity at the behavioral level could be the consequence of a distinct cortical network of MSI, as all studies using neuroimaging techniques demonstrated that sensory merging in ASD occurred at different topographies and latencies compared to control participants (Brandwein et al, 2013(Brandwein et al, , 2015Molholm et al, 2020;Russo et al, 2010;Stefanou et al, 2020). In addition, structural, anatomic, and functional differences in the superior temporal sulcus, an important site of audiovisual multisensory integration (for a review, see Beauchamp, 2010), have been demonstrated in participants with ASD compared to control participants (for a review, see Zilbovicius et al, 2013).…”

Section: The Sensory Modality Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This illusion was reported to be either weakened in ASD (Foss-Feig et al, 2010;Stevenson et al, 2014) or similar to that of control participants (Keane et al, 2010;Stevenson et al, 2018). Third, controversial results can also be found regarding multisensory facilitation, which has been demonstrated to be either intact (e.g., de Boer-Schellekens et al, 2013;Stefanou et al, 2020) or degraded in ASD (e.g., Ainsworth et al, 2021;Brandwein et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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What Makes the Detection of Movement Different Within the Autistic Traits Spectrum? Evidence From the Audiovisual Depth Paradigm

2023

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Atypical sensory processing is now considered a diagnostic feature of autism. Although multisensory integration (MSI) may have cascading effects on the development of higher-level skills such as socio-communicative functioning, there is a clear lack of understanding of how autistic individuals integrate multiple sensory inputs. Multisensory dynamic information is a more ecological construct than static stimuli, reflecting naturalistic sensory experiences given that our environment involves moving stimulation of more than one sensory modality at a time. In particular, depth movement informs about crucial social (approaching to interact) and non-social (avoiding threats/collisions) information. As autistic characteristics are distributed on a spectrum over clinical and general populations, our work aimed to explore the multisensory integration of depth cues in the autistic personality spectrum, using a go/no-go detection task. The autistic profile of 38 participants from the general population was assessed using questionnaires extensively used in the literature. Participants performed a detection task of auditory and/or visual depth moving stimuli compared to static stimuli. We found that subjects with high-autistic traits overreacted to depth movement and exhibited faster reaction times to audiovisual cues, particularly when the audiovisual stimuli were looming and/or were presented at a fast speed. These results provide evidence of sensory particularities in people with high-autistic traits and suggest that low-level stages of multisensory integration could operate differently all along the autistic personality spectrum.

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Section: The Sensory Modality Effectssupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: The Sensory Modality Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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What Makes the Detection of Movement Different Within the Autistic Traits Spectrum? Evidence From the Audiovisual Depth Paradigm

2023

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“…Regarding audiovisual (n = 4; 18%) and auditory-somatosensory integration (n = 1; <5%), the studies evaluated the speed of the SIP in response to simultaneous audition and visual stimuli in children with ASC compared to a control group (Brandwein et al, 2013(Brandwein et al, , 2015Molholm et al, 2020;Russo et al, 2010;Stefanou et al, 2020).…”

Section: [Insert Here Table 1]mentioning

confidence: 99%

How to assess sensory information processing in children and adolescents with autism spectrum condition: A systematic review

Brouche¹,

Cazalis²,

Rigal³

2022

Preprint

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Sensory information processing (SIP) is a diagnosis criterion for autism spectrum condition (ASC) since the fifth version of the DSM but clinicians and researchers lack a consensus to assess it. To fill this gap, we conducted a review of sensory assessment in children and adolescents with ASC. The main objective of this review was to identify the methods and tools for assessing SIP in children and adolescents with ASC. A second objective was to map the types of SIP characterization according to the tools. This extensive search was conducted in scientific databases from January 1991 to January 2021 using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) method. A total of 141 manuscripts met the criteria for inclusion. Five types of assessment method were identified: questionnaires, psychophysics, electroencephalography, neuroimaging and observations. Among these different methods, questionnaires are the most frequently cited, especially the Short Sensory Profile. This systematic review of methods for assessing SIP highlighted the great heterogeneity of sensory assessment targets in children with ASC, suggesting that current tools are not harmonized to characterize the SIP common to children and adolescents with ASC aged 0–18 years. If this systematic review allows better identification of the tools to be used in ASC clinics and research, the question remains as to how effective they are for assessing sensory specificities. Further research should serve as an opening for the development of new approaches to explore sensory treatment in order to build more efficient tools that can contribute to diagnoses.

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“…Early stimulus processing can be measured electrophysiologically, for example, by means of event-related potentials (ERPs; Barry et al, 2009 ). For instance, the P200 component that is the peak positivity that occurs between 175 and 250 ms after a stimulus onset, is associated with early sensory processing steps including like stimulus registration, encoding, evaluation, and discrimination, early attentive mechanisms and selective attention, as well as the inhibition of further processing of competing information ( Näätänen, 1992 ; Korostenskaja et al, 2008 ; Barry et al, 2009 ; Lazzaro et al, 2009 ; Sur and Sinha, 2009 ; Stefanou et al, 2020 ). This component has been reported to be deficient in patients with ADHD, showing an upregulation ( Barry et al, 2009 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrophysiological evidence for increased auditory crossmodal activity in adult ADHD

Schramm,

Goregliad Fjaellingsdal,

Aslan

et al. 2023

Front. Neurosci.

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BackgroundAttention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by core symptoms of inattention, and/or impulsivity and hyperactivity. In order to understand the basis for this multifaceted disorder, the investigation of sensory processing aberrancies recently reaches more interest. For example, during the processing of auditory stimuli comparable low sensory thresholds account for symptoms like higher distractibility and auditory hypersensitivity in patients with ADHD. It has further been shown that deficiencies not only exist on an intramodal, but also on a multimodal level. There is evidence that the visual cortex shows more activation during a focused auditory task in adults with ADHD than in healthy controls. This crossmodal activation is interpreted as the reallocation of more attentional resources to the visual domain as well as deficient sensory inhibition. In this study, we used, for the first time, electroencephalography to identify a potential abnormal regulated crossmodal activation in adult ADHD.Methods15 adult subjects with clinically diagnosed ADHD and 14 healthy controls comparable in age and gender were included. ERP components P50, P100, N100, P200 and N200 were measured during the performance of a unimodal auditory and visual discrimination task in a block design. Sensory profiles and ADHD symptoms were assessed with inattention as well as childhood ADHD scores. For evaluating intramodal and crossmodal activations, we chose four EEG channels for statistical analysis and group-wise comparison.ResultsAt the occipital channel O2 that reflects possible crossmodal activations, a significantly enhanced P200 amplitude was measured in the patient group. At the intramodal channels, a significantly enhanced N200 amplitude was observed in the control group. Statistical analysis of behavioral data showed poorer performance of subjects with ADHD as well as higher discrimination thresholds. Further, the correlation of the assessed sensory profiles with the EEG parameters revealed a negative correlation between the P200 component and sensation seeking behavior.ConclusionOur findings show increased auditory crossmodal activity that might reflect an altered stimulus processing resource allocation in ADHD. This might induce consequences for later, higher order attentional deployment. Further, the enhanced P200 amplitude might reflect more sensory registration and therefore deficient inhibition mechanisms in adults with ADHD.

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Late attentional processes potentially compensate for early perceptual multisensory integration deficits in children with autism: evidence from evoked potentials

Cited by 13 publications

References 72 publications

What Makes the Detection of Movement Different Within the Autistic Traits Spectrum? Evidence From the Audiovisual Depth Paradigm

What Makes the Detection of Movement Different Within the Autistic Traits Spectrum? Evidence From the Audiovisual Depth Paradigm

How to assess sensory information processing in children and adolescents with autism spectrum condition: A systematic review

Electrophysiological evidence for increased auditory crossmodal activity in adult ADHD

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