P300 Component of Event-Related Potentials in Persons With Asperger Disorder

Abstract

In the present study, we investigated auditory event-related potentials in adults with Asperger disorder and normal controls using an auditory oddball task and a novelty oddball task. Task performance and the latencies of P300 evoked by both target and novel stimuli in the two tasks did not differ between the two groups. Analysis of variance revealed that there was a significant interaction effect between group and electrode site on the mean amplitude of the P300 evoked by novel stimuli, which indicated that there was an altered distribution of the P300 in persons with Asperger disorder. In contrast, there was no significant interaction effect on the mean P300 amplitude elicited by target stimuli. Considering that P300 comprises two main subcomponents, frontal-central-dominant P3a and parietal-dominant P3b, our results suggested that persons with Asperger disorder have enhanced amplitude of P3a, which indicated activated prefrontal function in this task.

A scoping review of physiological biomarkers in autism

“…Third, as for the P3 wave (which reflects a shift toward stimuli that requires a change in attention), some results show that there is no change in P3a amplitude in adults with ASD but there is an increased P3a amplitude in children with ASD ( Gomot et al, 2002 ; Ferri et al, 2003 ), other results show that there is an increased P3a amplitude in adults ( Iwanami et al, 2014 ). It seems that the amplitude of P3a is related to the subject’s age.…”

Defining clusters of young autistic and typically developing children based on loudness-dependent auditory electrophysiological responses

“…At present, relatively few studies using EEG or magnetoencephalography to investigate sensory processing in ASD have investigated heterogeneity. No published neurophysiological studies have attempted to separate autistic individuals into subgroups based neural markers of sensory processing, although some studies have reported associations between neurophysiological responses and various other variables in ASD [29][30][31][32][33][34], including other measurements of sensory processing, such as questionnaires [35][36][37][38][39].…”

Preliminary observations on the associations between sensory processing abnormalities and event‐related potentials in adults with autism spectrum disorder

“…Several previous studies of ASD patients have found inconsistent ERP abnormalities. For the P300 component, some studies have reported a shortened latency, 40 while others suggest prolonged latency 3,41 . Furthermore, the amplitude of P300 is similarly inconsistent, with some studies reporting a decrease in amplitude, 42–44 and others indicating an increase 17,41,45,46 .…”