EEG data--Early and Late Stage Processing Abnormalities in Autism Spectrum Disorders: An ERP Study

This research assessed event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited
during the processing of different kinds of visual stimuli among children with
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (n=15) and typically developing (TD) children
(n=19). Within a simple visual oddball paradigm, participating children
passively viewed fruit and vegetable images that were used as standard stimuli
in addition to images of these foods with their usual colors modified to create
novel stimuli and cartoon depictions of these images (i,e., “deviant” stimuli).
Analyses revealed significant main effect differences between the groups for
P100, N100 and P300 components; ASD group children showing longer P100
latencies, weaker N100 amplitudes and larger P300 amplitudes than TD group. A
Group x Hemisphere interaction also emerged for N400 amplitudes but differences
were not significant in simple-effects analyses. Together these results
suggested children with ASD may be characterized by lower attention resource
allocation, and engagement during early stages of processing visual stimuli.
However, ERPs in later processing stages suggested children with ASD and TD children have
similar neural responses in attending to visual images as stimulus presentations
continue.