Theta and Alpha Oscillation Impairments in Autistic Spectrum Disorder Reflect Working Memory Deficit

Abstract

A dysfunction in the excitatory–inhibitory (E/I) coordination in neuronal assembly has been proposed as a possible neurobiological mechanism of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, the potential impact of this mechanism in cognitive performance is not fully explored. Since the main consequence of E/I dysfunction is an impairment in oscillatory activity and its underlying cognitive computations, we assessed the electroencephalographic activity of ASD and typically developing (TD) subjects during a working-memory task. We found that ASD subjects committed more errors than TD subjects. Moreover, TD subjects demonstrated a parametric modulation in the power of alpha and theta band while ASD subjects did not demonstrate significant modulations. The preceding leads to significant differences between the groups in both the alpha power placed on the occipital cortex and the theta power placed on the left premotor and the right prefrontal cortex. The impaired theta modulation correlated with autistic symptoms. The results indicated that ASD may present an alteration in the recruitment of the oscillatory activity during working-memory, and this alteration could be related to the physiopathology of the disorder.

Lateral Prefrontal Theta Oscillations Reflect Proactive Cognitive Control Impairment in Males With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

“…In this context, it is relevant to mention reported working memory deficits in children with ADHD (Nikolas and Nigg, 2013). Working memory crucially depends on theta oscillation (Billeke et al, 2017;Larrain-Valenzuela et al, 2017;Figueroa-Vargas et al, 2020), and its impairment can preclude the adequate information maintaining necessary to exert general proactive cognitive control. In a broad sense, these functional results can be related to the functional differences observed in children with ADHD in prefrontal areas when compared to TD children (Nakao et al, 2011;Frodl and Skokauskas, 2012) and the difference between TD children according to age (Bruin et al, 2001;Jonkman, 2006;Spronk et al, 2008).…”

“…These medial structures are strongly coupled with the lateral prefrontal cortex, which subserves the implementation of cognitive control, for example, inhibitory control (Kerns, 2006;Shenhav et al, 2013). Interestingly, reactive and proactive cognitive control is also reflected in theta oscillation and BOLD activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex (Cavanagh et al, 2010;Braver, 2012;Billeke et al, 2013b;Larrain-Valenzuela et al, 2017). In contrast to medial prefrontal functioning, it is not clear how the lateral prefrontal activity matures during development.…”

Postnatal development and maturation of layer 1 in the lateral prefrontal cortex and its disruption in autism

“…In particular, changes in axon caliber and the relative ratios of myelinated axon sizes directly influence the strength and persistence of the action potential generated by projection neurons, as well as their firing rate [ 58 , 96 ], which play a key role in sustained activity during working memory and attentional tasks in LPFC [ 22 , 65 , 95 , 99 ]. These, in turn, can underlie changes in the spread of activity and oscillations [ 12 , 59 , 67 , 68 , 73 ], and may be linked with changes in the expression of neuronal ion channels and regulatory proteins in individuals with autism [ 25 , 57 , 94 , 98 ]. Genes associated with autism, such as UBE3B and ZNF18, are transcriptionally regulated by membrane depolarization and are involved in experience-dependent learning and synaptic plasticity [ 34 ].…”

Late Frontal Negativity Discriminates Outcomes and Intentions in Trust-Repayment Behavior

“…Offline EEG data analysis was performed using EEGLab (Delorme and Makeig, 2004) and LANToolbox, a Matlab toolbox built using algorithms implemented in Fieldtrip, EEGLab, and Cronix, and specifically designed for advanced EEG signal analyses 3 (see, for example, our previous work: Billeke et al, 2017a,b;Larrain-Valenzuela et al, 2017;Figueroa-Vargas et al, 2020). EEG data for 3 of the 20 participants were excluded because they had more than 40% of trials rejected, based on semiautomatic criteria.…”