Altered tactile abnormalities in children with ASD during tactile processing and recognition revealed by dynamic EEG...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biomedical Engineering
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition often presenting with sensory processing abnormalities, particularly in tactile perception.
• Current diagnostic methods for ASD rely heavily on subjective behavioral assessments, necessitating objective screening tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a portable electro-tactile stimulation system combined with electroencephalography (EEG) for objective tactile processing evaluation in children.
• To differentiate tactile processing patterns between children with ASD and typically developing (TD) controls.

Main Methods:

• A portable electro-tactile stimulation system and EEG were utilized to assess tactile processing in 36 children with ASD and 36 TD children.
• Event-related potentials (ERPs) including P200, N200, and P300 were analyzed, alongside topographic mapping and artificial neural network (ANN) classification.

Main Results:

• Significantly reduced ERP amplitudes (P200, N200, P300) were observed in children with ASD across frontal, central, and parietal regions.
• ASD children showed prolonged but less efficient tactile discrimination with compensatory prefrontal activation.
• The system achieved 85.2% classification accuracy using ANN, with high reliability (CV ICC: ASD=0.779, TD=0.729).

Conclusions:

• The developed system offers an objective, efficient (15-minute) screening method for ASD.
• Findings enhance understanding of tactile processing deficits in ASD and support the development of physiological biomarkers for early identification.