Stronger neural modulation by visual motion intensity in autism spectrum disorders

Theories of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have focused on altered perceptual integration of sensory features as a possible core deficit. Yet, there is little understanding of the neuronal processing of elementary sensory features in ASD. For typically developed individuals, we previously established a direct link between frequency-specific neural activity and the intensity of a specific sensory feature: Gamma-band activity in the visual cortex increased approximately linearly with the strength of visual motion. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated whether in individuals with ASD neural activity reflect the coherence, and thus intensity, of visual motion in a similar fashion. Thirteen adult participants with ASD and 14 control participants performed a motion direction discrimination task with increasing levels of motion coherence. A polynomial regression analysis revealed that gamma-band power increased significantly stronger with motion coherence in ASD compared to cont...自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的相关理论始终将感觉特征的知觉整合异常视作潜在的核心缺损。然而，学界对自闭症谱系障碍群体的基本感觉特征神经元加工机制的认知仍较为匮乏。此前针对典型发育个体，我们已确立频率特异性神经活动与特定感觉特征强度之间的直接关联：视觉皮层的伽马波段活动随视觉运动强度近似呈线性增长。本研究借助脑磁图（MEG），探究自闭症谱系障碍个体的神经活动是否能以类似方式反映视觉运动的连贯性（即其强度）。研究纳入13名自闭症谱系障碍成人受试者与14名对照受试者，令其完成一项运动连贯性梯度递增的运动方向辨别任务。多项式回归分析结果显示，相较于对照受试者，自闭症谱系障碍群体的伽马波段功率随运动连贯性提升的增幅显著更强……