Altered neural oscillatory dynamics underlie reduced anticipatory schema use during event segmentation in adolescents...

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by diverse symptoms that may stem from atypical integration of sensory information and prediction processes. Event Segmentation Theory (EST) offers a framework to examine how individuals parse continuous experience into meaningful units. This study investigated whether altered event segmentation in adolescents with ASD arises from atypical neural oscillatory dynamics underlying prediction and updating processes. Behaviorally, adolescents with ASD showed a weaker adaption of segmentation behavior to the occurrence of situational changes than neurotypical participants, particularly in response to small spatial changes. Neurophysiologically, both groups exhibited alpha and beta power reductions at event boundaries, but these modulations were less extensive and more localized in ASD. Source-level theta modulations before boundaries were only present in ASD, suggesting increased reliance on error monitoring rather than event schema access. Adolescents with ASD show reduced event segmentation in response to contextual changes accompanied by altered alpha, beta and theta oscillatory dynamics, indicative of reduced schema-based integration, inflexible updating of event representations and heightened conflict monitoring. These findings highlight event segmentation as a potential cognitive mechanism contributing to broader ASD symptomatology.