Age-Related Increases in 40Hz Neural Synchrony Are Specific to Typical Development: A Cross-Sectional Study of Autism...

The 40Hz auditory steady-state response (ASSR) is a measure of gamma-band neural synchrony sensitive to excitation-inhibition (E/I) balance. Disruptions to E/I balance have been implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), making ASSR an efficient tool for investigating neural synchrony development in this population. Whether age-related differences in 40Hz ASSR are detectable across development in ASD remains understudied. Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS), a rare genetic disorder with a phenotype overlapping with autism, caused by SHANK3 disruption, provides a genetically defined model for further investigating E/I-related neural synchrony disruptions.

We examined 40Hz inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC) as an index of neural synchrony across a wide age range (2-37 years) in 127 participants from four groups: TD (n=43), ASD without intellectual disability (w/o ID; n=37), ASD with intellectual disability (w/ID; n=24), and PMS (n=23). Given the distinct age and cognitive profiles of ASD subgroups in this sample, analyses were conducted in separate models: TD vs. ASD w/o ID across all ages, and TD vs. ASD w/ID vs. PMS restricted to participants under 18.

For the first time in a cross-sectional sample spanning a large age range, we show that 40Hz ITPC increases significantly with age in TD individuals, while this developmental trajectory is absent in ASD without intellectual disability. Among children and adolescents under 18, 40Hz ITPC did not differ across TD, ASD w/ID, and PMS, and IQ did not predict ITPC in clinical groups. A post-hoc analysis revealed higher ITPC in TD males than females, with no sex differences in ASD or PMS.

We demonstrate that gamma-band ITPC trajectories diverge between TD and ASD, specifically in adulthood, with no such difference detectable in childhood. No significant group differences were found among TD, ASD w/ID, and PMS individuals under 18. These findings highlight the importance of age as a critical variable when measuring ASSR, and underscore the need for lifespan studies, particularly in genetically defined conditions such as PMS, to determine whether similar divergence emerges in adulthood.