Altered EEG variability on different time scales in participants with autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study
Abstract One of the great challenges in psychiatry is finding reliable biomarkers that may allow for more accurate diagnosis and treatment of patients. Neural variability received increasing attention in recent years as a potential biomarker. In the present explorative study we investigated temporal...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17304-x |
| _version_ | 1818163064329994240 |
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| author | Lukas Hecker Mareike Wilson Ludger Tebartz van Elst Jürgen Kornmeier |
| author_facet | Lukas Hecker Mareike Wilson Ludger Tebartz van Elst Jürgen Kornmeier |
| author_sort | Lukas Hecker |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract One of the great challenges in psychiatry is finding reliable biomarkers that may allow for more accurate diagnosis and treatment of patients. Neural variability received increasing attention in recent years as a potential biomarker. In the present explorative study we investigated temporal variability in visually evoked EEG activity in a cohort of 16 adult participants with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and 19 neurotypical (NT) controls. Participants performed a visual oddball task using fine and coarse checkerboard stimuli. We investigated various measures of neural variability and found effects on multiple time scales. (1) As opposed to the previous studies, we found reduced inter-trial variability in the AS group compared to NT. (2) This effect builds up over the entire course of a 5-min experiment and (3) seems to be based on smaller variability of neural background activity in AS compared to NTs. The here reported variability effects come with considerably large effect sizes, making them promising candidates for potentially reliable biomarkers in psychiatric diagnostics. The observed pattern of universality across different time scales and stimulation conditions indicates trait-like effects. Further research with a new and larger set of participants are thus needed to verify or falsify our findings. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T16:43:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-60f4edd728c54f83945d585f67fed403 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T16:43:37Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-60f4edd728c54f83945d585f67fed4032022-12-22T00:58:16ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-07-0112111210.1038/s41598-022-17304-xAltered EEG variability on different time scales in participants with autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory studyLukas Hecker0Mareike Wilson1Ludger Tebartz van Elst2Jürgen Kornmeier3Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Freiburg Medical CenterDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Freiburg Medical CenterDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Freiburg Medical CenterDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Freiburg Medical CenterAbstract One of the great challenges in psychiatry is finding reliable biomarkers that may allow for more accurate diagnosis and treatment of patients. Neural variability received increasing attention in recent years as a potential biomarker. In the present explorative study we investigated temporal variability in visually evoked EEG activity in a cohort of 16 adult participants with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and 19 neurotypical (NT) controls. Participants performed a visual oddball task using fine and coarse checkerboard stimuli. We investigated various measures of neural variability and found effects on multiple time scales. (1) As opposed to the previous studies, we found reduced inter-trial variability in the AS group compared to NT. (2) This effect builds up over the entire course of a 5-min experiment and (3) seems to be based on smaller variability of neural background activity in AS compared to NTs. The here reported variability effects come with considerably large effect sizes, making them promising candidates for potentially reliable biomarkers in psychiatric diagnostics. The observed pattern of universality across different time scales and stimulation conditions indicates trait-like effects. Further research with a new and larger set of participants are thus needed to verify or falsify our findings.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17304-x |
| spellingShingle | Lukas Hecker Mareike Wilson Ludger Tebartz van Elst Jürgen Kornmeier Altered EEG variability on different time scales in participants with autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study Scientific Reports |
| title | Altered EEG variability on different time scales in participants with autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study |
| title_full | Altered EEG variability on different time scales in participants with autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study |
| title_fullStr | Altered EEG variability on different time scales in participants with autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Altered EEG variability on different time scales in participants with autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study |
| title_short | Altered EEG variability on different time scales in participants with autism spectrum disorder: an exploratory study |
| title_sort | altered eeg variability on different time scales in participants with autism spectrum disorder an exploratory study |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17304-x |
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