Computerized EEG analyses of autistic children.
Electroencephalographic measures of the neurophysiological dysfunction underlying autism have been nonspecific and incomplete. Studies using electroencephalographic methods have been fraught with subject sampling bias, a lack of standardized techniques and measures, and a lack of appropriate control groups. Low-functioning autistic children with age-matched normals, age-matched mentally handicapped, and mentally age-matched normal toddlers were tested using a computerized electroencephalographic technique. The autistic children showed significantly more slow wave activity and less alpha, as well as less inter- and intrahemispheric asymmetry than either normal or mentally handicapped children. In general, electroencephalographic features of autistic children closely resembled those of the toddlers, supporting a model of maturational lag as the key descriptor for autistic CNS functioning. A model of diminished cortical differentiation is proposed to account for the low level of intellectual functioning.
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000503:physiopathology; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male