Page 47 - MEGIN Book Of Abstracts - 2023

Left hemispheric deficit in the sustained in the left hemisphere in boys with ASD. The SF delay in
neuromagnetic response to periodic click trains in participants with ASD was present irrespective of their
children with ASD (2020) intelligence level and severity of autism symptoms.

Stroganova, T A; Komarov, K S; Sysoeva, O V; Goiaeva, LIMITATIONS We did not test the language abilities of
D E; Obukhova, T S; Ovsiannikova, T M; Prokofyev, A O; our participants. Therefore, the link between SF and
Orekhova, E V processing of vocal pitch in children with ASD remains
speculative.
Center for Neurocognitive Research (MEG Center), Moscow
State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Rus- CONCLUSION Children with ASD demonstrate atypical
sian Federation; Institute of Higher Nervous Activity, Russian processing of spectrally complex periodic sound at the
Academy of Science, Moscow, Russian Federation; MedTech level of the core auditory cortex of the left-hemisphere.
West and the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sahlg- The observed neural deficit may contribute to speech
renska Academy, The University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, perception difficulties experienced by children with
Sweden. [email protected] ASD, including their poor perception and production of
linguistic prosody.
BACKGROUND Deficits in perception and produc-
tion of vocal pitch are often observed in people with Keywords: 40 Hz clicks, Auditory steady state response
autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the neural basis of (ASSR), Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), Children, Mag-
these deficits is unknown. In magnetoencephalogram netoencephalogram (MEG), Pitch processing, Sustained
(MEG), spectrally complex periodic sounds trigger two field (SF)
continuous neural responses-the auditory steady state
response (ASSR) and the sustained field (SF). It has Molecular autism (2020), Vol. 11, No. 1 (33384021) (9
been shown that the SF in neurotypical individuals is citations)
associated with low-level analysis of pitch in the 'pitch
processing center' of the Heschl's gyrus. Therefore, al-
ternations in this auditory response may reflect atypical Alpha connectivity and inhibitory control in adults
processing of vocal pitch. The SF, however, has never with autism spectrum disorder (2020)
been studied in people with ASD.
Yuk, Veronica; Dunkley, Benjamin T; Anagnostou,
METHODS We used MEG and individual brain models Evdokia; Taylor, Margot J
to investigate the ASSR and SF evoked by monaural
40 Hz click trains in boys with ASD (N = 35) and neuro- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto,
typical (NT) boys (N = 35) aged 7-12-years. ON, Canada. [email protected]; Department of
Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;
RESULTS In agreement with the previous research in Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabili-
adults, the cortical sources of the SF in children were tation Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada
located in the left and right Heschl's gyri, anterolateral
to those of the ASSR. In both groups, the SF and ASSR BACKGROUND Individuals with autism spectrum
dominated in the right hemisphere and were higher in disorder (ASD) often report difficulties with inhibition
the hemisphere contralateral to the stimulated ear. The in everyday life. During inhibition tasks, adults with
ASSR increased with age in both NT and ASD children ASD show reduced activation of and connectivity
and did not differ between the groups. The SF ampli- between brain areas implicated in inhibition, suggest-
tude did not significantly change between the ages of ing impairments in inhibitory control at the neural
7 and 12 years. It was moderately attenuated in both level. Our study further investigated these differences
hemispheres and was markedly delayed and displaced by using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine

 ontents  Index 26
C