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Scalp Topography of Event-Related Potentials Reveals Differences in Audiovisual Speech Processing in Autistic and
Kacie Dunham-Carr1,2,3, Jacob I Feldman4,5,6, David M Simon7
1Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. Kacie.Dunham-Carr@childrens.harvard.edu.
Purpose:
In our prior work, conventional event-related potential (ERP) responses to audiovisual versus auditory-only speech were found to explain variance in language abilities in autistic and non-autistic children but failed to differentiate autistic children from non-autistic children. This study extends previous ERP analyses of responses to audiovisual versus auditory-only speech in autistic and non-autistic school-aged children to investigate group and condition differences in the strength and topography of the ERP based on data-driven, reference-independent metrics that overcome limitations of conventional ERP analyses.
Methods:
Extant ERP data from 50 5-12-year-old children (25 per group, matched at the group level on age and sex assigned at birth) recorded during a passive task of listening and watching videos of auditory-only and audiovisual speech syllables were analyzed for differences in ERP strength and topography, quantified via global field power (GFP) and global map dissimilarity (GMD), respectively.
Results:
GFP was significantly reduced for audiovisual compared to auditory-only speech at 245-275 ms post-stimulus. Groups differed in GMD of the ERPs reflecting the difference in response to audiovisual versus auditory-only speech at 139-170 ms post-stimulus, wherein microstates suggested predominantly differential occipital electrode responses.
Conclusions:
The benefits of audiovisual integration manifest as a facilitation effect (reduced signal strength of the ERP response to audiovisual versus auditory-only speech) across autistic and non-autistic children. Autistic children also display different patterns of activation underlying ERPs in response to audiovisual versus auditory-only speech relative to non-autistic children. Topographic ERP analyses show promise for advancing our understanding of audiovisual speech processing in autism.
