Reduced visual evoked potentials in children with autism spectrum disorder

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Brooke E. Keough^1,2, Winko W. An^1,2, Virginia A. Rosenberger^1,2, Noah Crane^1,2, Leena Gupta^1,2, April Levin^1,2, Charles A. Nelson^1,2,3; ¹Boston Children's Hospital, ²Harvard Medical School, ³Harvard University

Hypo- or hyper-sensitivity to sensory stimuli is often associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This phenotype is believed to reflect disruptions in excitatory (E) and inhibitory (I) transmission in the brain, and correspondingly, E/I balance. The visual evoked potential (VEP) provides an ideal tool to explore these differences via the production of positive and negative deflections directly linked to the integrity of the visual processing stream. In the current study, we use electroencephalography (EEG) along with a pattern-reversal VEP paradigm in children aged 2-12 years with ASD (n=31) and typically developing (TD) peers (n=27). To allow for individualization of electrode selection, we adopted a novel component-based method to select electrodes containing the best representation of VEP. We ran an ANCOVA and found significantly lower amplitudes in both the N70 (p=0.003) and N70-P100 difference (p=0.017) between the ASD and TD cohorts, while controlling for age differences. We also conducted an exploratory frequency-domain analysis to examine inter-trial phase coherence across the alpha and beta frequency bands. Children with ASD were found to have significantly lower alpha (p=0.011) and beta (p=0.003) mean inter-trial coherence (ITC), potentially indicating a reduction in inhibitory signaling. Overall, these findings demonstrate amplitude reductions in the visual processing pathways and increased response variability across frequency bands in ASD, indexing potential cortical processing differences and alterations in glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision