Page 55 - MEGIN Book Of Abstracts - 2023

was correlated with age. The Kaufmann Assessment children and adults with ASD; yet the neural basis of
Battery for Children score was correlated with the left- motor functional impairment in ASD remains poorly
side 40-Hz ASSR in both groups. characterized. In this study, we used magnetoen-
cephalography (MEG) to (1) assess potential group
CONCLUSION Right-dominant ASSR was success- differences between typically developing (TD) and
fully detected in young TD children and children with ASD participants in motor cortical oscillatory activity
ASD. No difference in ASSR was observed between the observed on a simple button-press task and (2) to do
children with ASD and the TD children, although the so over a sufficiently broad age-range so as to capture
right-side 40-Hz ASSR increased with age only in the age-dependent changes associated with develop-
TD children. Left-side 40-Hz ASSR was associated with ment. Event-related desynchronization was evaluated
intelligence score in both groups. in Mu (8-13 Hz) and Beta (15-30 Hz) frequency bands
(Mu-ERD, Beta-ERD). In addition, post-movement Beta
Keywords: auditory steady-state response, autism spec- rebound (PMBR), and movement-related gamma (60-
trum disorder, development, magnetoencephalography 90 Hz) synchrony (MRGS) were also assessed in a cohort
of 123 participants (63 typically developing (TD) and
Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences (2020), Vol. 74, No. 6 59 with ASD) ranging in age from 8 to 24.9 years. We
(32155301) (10 citations) observed significant age-dependent linear trends in
Beta-ERD and MRGS power with age for both TD and
ASD groups; which did not differ significantly between
Evaluating motor cortical oscillations and age- groups. However, for PMBR, in addition to a significant
related change in autism spectrum disorder (2020) effect of age, we also observed a significant reduction
in PMBR power in the ASD group (p < 0.05). Post-hoc
Gaetz, William; Rhodes, Edward; Bloy, Luke; Blaskey, tests showed that this omnibus group difference was
Lisa; Jackel, Carissa R; Brodkin, Edward S; Waldman, driven by the older cohort of children >13.2 years
Amy; Embick, David; Hall, Stephen; Roberts, Timothy P L (p < 0.001) and this group difference was not observed
when assessing PMBR activity for the younger PMBR
Lurie Family Foundations' MEG Imaging Center, Department groups (ages 8-13.2 years; p = 0.48). Moreover, for the
of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadel- older ASD cohort, hierarchical regression showed a
phia, PA, USA. Electronic address: [email protected]; significant relationship between PMBR activity and
UK Dementia Research Institute, Imperial College London, clinical scores of ASD severity (Social Responsiveness
London, UK; Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pedi- Scale (SRS T scores)), after regressing out the effect of
atrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA; Department age (p < 0.05). Our results show substantial age-depen-
of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine at the University dent changes in motor cortical oscillations (Beta-ERD
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Division of Neurology, and MRGS) occur for both TD and ASD children and
Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics, Children's Hospital diverge only for PMBR, and most significantly for older
of Philadelphia, Perelman School of Medicine at the Univer- adolescents and adults with ASD. While the functional
sity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of significance of PMBR and reduced PMBR signaling
Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; remains to be fully elucidated, these results underscore
Brain Research and Imaging Centre, University of Plymouth, the importance of considering age as a factor when
Devon, UK assessing motor cortical oscillations and group differ-
ences in children with ASD.
ABSTRACT Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is primarily
characterized by impairments in social communica- NeuroImage (2020), Vol. 207 (31726253) (10 citations)
tion and the appearance of repetitive behaviors with
restricted interests. Increasingly, evidence also points
to a general deficit of motor tone and coordination in

 ontents  Index 34
C