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A Spectrotemporal Correlate of Language Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

This study introduces an objective neurophysiological marker of language ability, the integral of event-related desynchronization in the 5–20 Hz band during 0.2–1 seconds post auditory stimulation with interleaved word/non-word tokens. This measure correlates with clinical assessment of language function in both ASD and neurotypical pediatric populations. The measure does not appear related to general cognitive ability nor autism symptom severity (beyond degree of language impairment). We suggest that this oscillatory brain activity indexes lexical search and thus increases with increased search in the mental lexicon. While specificity for language impairment in ASD remains to be determined, such an objective index has potential utility in low functioning individuals with ASD and young children during language acquisition.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to the thank all of the participants and their families for their cooperation and for participating in this study. This work was supported in part by NIH R01DC008871 (TR), NIH R01HD073258 (DE), NIH K01MH108762 (LB) and NIH U54HD086984, the institutional IDDRC (TR directs the Neuroimaging Neurocircuitry Core).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Lurie Family Foundations MEG Imaging Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 3401 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Luke Bloy, Kobey Shwayder, Lisa Blaskey & Timothy P. L. Roberts

  2. Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Kobey Shwayder, Timothy P. L. Roberts & David Embick

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  1. Luke Bloy
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  2. Kobey Shwayder
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Contributions

LB, Ph.D. is a Research Scientist at the Lurie Family Foundations MEG Imaging Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). KS, Ph.D. is a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Radiology Department at CHOP and a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. LB, PhD, is a pediatric neuropsychologist in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the Center for Autism Research, and the Autism Integrated Care Program at CHOP. TPLR, PhD, is a professor of Radiology, Vicechair of Research for the Department of Radiology and the Oberkircher Family Endowed Chair in Pediatric Radiology at CHOP. DE, Ph.D. is a professor and chair of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Correspondence to Luke Bloy.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Roberts declares consulting agreements (medical advisory boards) with CTF MEG, Ricoh, Spago Nanomedicine, Avexis Inc. and Acadia Pharmaceuticals as well as intellectual property under licensing negotiation. Drs. Bloy, Shwayder, Blaskey and Embick declare no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all participant’s families and each participant (when competent to do so) gave verbal assent to participate in the study.

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Glossary

ERD

Event related desynchrony—task related decreases in oscillatory power relative to baseline

ERS

Event related synchrony—task related increases in oscillatory power relative to baseline

MEG

Magnetoencephalography

EEG

Electroencephalography

ASD

Autism spectrum disorder

TD

Typically developing

M50/M100

Prominent middle and late components of the auditory evoked field

Lexical

Relating to the words or vocabulary

Theta Band

Oscillatory activity between 4 and 6 Hz

Alpha Band

Oscillatory activity between 8 and 12 Hz

Beta Band

Oscillatory activity between 13 and 30 Hz

Gamma Band

Oscillatory activity above 30 Hz (typically below 100 Hz)

STG

Superior temporal gyrus

ADOS-CSS

Calibrated severity score derived from the autism diagnostic observation schedule

PRI

Perceptual reasoning index from the wechsler intelligence scale for children-IV

CELF-CLSS

Core language standard score from the clinical evaluation of language fundamentals

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Bloy, L., Shwayder, K., Blaskey, L. et al. A Spectrotemporal Correlate of Language Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 3181–3190 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04040-x

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