title: Enhanced brain signal variability in children with autism spectrum disorder during early childhood.
abstract: Extensive evidence shows that a core neurobiological mechanism of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involves aberrant neural connectivity. Recent advances in the investigation of brain signal variability have yielded important information about neural network mechanisms. That information has been applied fruitfully to the assessment of aging and mental disorders. Multiscale entropy (MSE) analysis can characterize the complexity inherent in brain signal dynamics over multiple temporal scales in the dynamics of neural networks. For this investigation, we sought to characterize the magnetoencephalography (MEG) signal variability during free watching of videos without sound using MSE in 43 children with ASD and 72 typically developing controls (TD), emphasizing early childhood to older childhood: a critical period of neural network maturation. Results revealed an age-related increase of brain signal variability in a specific timescale in TD children, whereas atypical age-related alteration was observed in the ASD group. Additionally, enhanced brain signal variability was observed in children with ASD, and was confirmed particularly for younger children. In the ASD group, symptom severity was associated region-specifically and timescale-specifically with reduced brain signal variability. These results agree well with a recently reported theory of increased brain signal variability during development and aberrant neural connectivity in ASD, especially during early childhood. Results of this study suggest that MSE analytic method might serve as a useful approach for characterizing neurophysiological mechanisms of typical-developing and its alterations in ASD through the detection of MEG signal variability at multiple timescales.
authors: Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Japan.
authors: Tetsuya
authors: T
authors: Takahashi
authors: Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Japan.
authors: Yuko
authors: Y
authors: Yoshimura
authors: Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Japan.
authors: Hirotoshi
authors: H
authors: Hiraishi
authors: Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Japan.
authors: Chiaki
authors: C
authors: Hasegawa
authors: Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Japan.|Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan.
authors: Toshio
authors: T
authors: Munesue
authors: Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Japan.
authors: Haruhiro
authors: H
authors: Higashida
authors: Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Japan.|Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan.
authors: Yoshio
authors: Y
authors: Minabe
authors: Research Center for Child Mental Development, Kanazawa University, Japan.|Department of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan.
authors: Mitsuru
authors: M
authors: Kikuchi
mesh_terms: D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
keywords: autism spectrum disorder; early childhood; magnetoencephalography; multiscale entropy; signal variability; typical-development