The investigation of dysregulated visual perceptual organization in adults with autism spectrum disorders with phase-amplitude coupling and directed connectivity

TL;DR

This study explores how brain activity patterns related to visual perception differ in adults with autism compared to controls using advanced brain signal analysis techniques.

Contribution

The study introduces novel evidence on the role of alpha-gamma phase-amplitude coupling in visual perception among individuals with autism.

Findings

ASD participants showed hyper-activity coupling in non-face visual conditions.

Alpha-gamma phase modulation is important for face detection in ASD.

Global connectivity appears more critical during visual perception in ASD.

Abstract

Phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) has been used as a powerful tool to understand the mechanism underlying neural binding by investigating neural synchrony across different frequency bands. This study examined the possibility that dysregulated alpha-gamma modulation may be crucially involved in aberrant brain functioning in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Magnetoencephalographic data were recorded from 13 adult participants with ASD and 16 controls. The time-coursed sources averaged over a primary visual area 1 and fusiform gyrus area were reconstructed with the minimum-norm estimate method. The alpha-gamma PAC was further calculated based on these sources. The statistical analysis was implemented based on the PAC and directed asymmetry index. The results showed the hyper-activity coupling for ASD at the no-face condition and revealed the importance of alpha-gamma phase modulation in detecting a face. Our data provides novel evidence for the role of the alpha-gamma PAC and suggests that the globe connectivity may be more critical during visual perception.

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