title: Changes in EEG complexity with electroconvulsive therapy in a patient with autism spectrum disorders: a multiscale entropy approach.
abstract: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorders that are reportedly characterized by aberrant neural networks. Recently developed multiscale entropy analysis (MSE) can characterize the complexity inherent in electroencephalography (EEG) dynamics over multiple temporal scales in the dynamics of neural networks. We encountered an 18-year-old man with ASD whose refractory catatonic obsessive-compulsive symptoms were improved dramatically after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In this clinical case study, we strove to clarify the neurophysiological mechanism of ECT in ASD by assessing EEG complexity using MSE. Along with ECT, the frontocentral region showed decreased EEG complexity at higher temporal scales, whereas the occipital region expressed an increase at lower temporal scales. Furthermore, these changes were associated with clinical improvement associated with the elevation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is a molecular hypothesis of ECT, playing key roles in ASD pathogenesis. Changes in EEG complexity in a region-specific and temporal scale-specific manner that we found might reflect atypical EEG dynamics in ASD. Although MSE is not a direct approach to measuring neural connectivity and the results are from only a single case, they might reflect specific aberrant neural network activity and the therapeutic neurophysiological mechanism of ECT in ASD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui , Fukui , Japan.
authors.forename: Ryoko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Okazaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui , Fukui , Japan.
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui , Fukui , Japan.
authors.forename: Kanji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui , Fukui , Japan.
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health , Tokyo , Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishitobi
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University , Kanazawa , Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui , Fukui , Japan.
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Higashima
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui , Fukui , Japan.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wada
keywords: EEG complexity; autism spectrum disorders; brain-derived neurotrophic factor; electroconvulsive therapy; multiscale entropy; obsessive–compulsive disorder