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Tracking the Sensory Environment: An ERP Study of Probability and Context Updating in ASD

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Abstract

We recorded visual event-related brain potentials from 32 adult male participants (16 high-functioning participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 16 control participants, ranging in age from 18 to 53 years) during a three-stimulus oddball paradigm. Target and non-target stimulus probability was varied across three probability conditions, whereas the probability of a third non-target stimulus was held constant in all conditions. P3 amplitude to target stimuli was more sensitive to probability in ASD than in typically developing participants, whereas P3 amplitude to non-target stimuli was less responsive to probability in ASD participants. This suggests that neural responses to changes in event probability are attention-dependant in high-functioning ASD. The implications of these findings for higher-level behaviors such as prediction and planning are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Neural Computation, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. MC-0959, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0959, USA

    Marissa A. Westerfield

  2. Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. MC-0959, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0959, USA

    Marla Zinni & Jeanne Townsend

  3. Chicago Medical School, 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, IL, 60064-3095, USA

    Khang Vo

Authors
  1. Marissa A. Westerfield
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  2. Marla Zinni
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  4. Jeanne Townsend
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Correspondence to Marissa A. Westerfield.

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Westerfield, M.A., Zinni, M., Vo, K. et al. Tracking the Sensory Environment: An ERP Study of Probability and Context Updating in ASD. J Autism Dev Disord 45, 600–611 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2045-6

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