Response Inhibition in Autistic Adults: A Functional Near‐Infrared Spectroscopy Study in Virtual Reality

TL;DR

This study found that autistic and non-autistic adults performed similarly in a virtual reality task, but only non-autistic adults showed brain activity in a key region during response inhibition.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel VR-based fNIRS method to examine executive functioning in autistic adults.

Findings

Both autistic and non-autistic adults showed similar behavioral performance in the go/no-go task.

Non-autistic adults exhibited increased right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation during inhibition.

Autistic adults showed no significant prefrontal cortex modulation during the task.

Abstract

Response inhibition, a core component of executive functioning, has been studied extensively in autism, though results depend substantially on task choice and design. This study investigated whether autistic and non‐autistic adults differ in behavioral and neurophysiological responses during a visuospatial go/no‐go task (GNGT) implemented in virtual reality (VR).

Participants (22 autistic, 10 non‐autistic) completed a blocked go/no‐go task in a VR environment, where stimuli appeared in varied spatial locations. Prefrontal hemodynamic responses were recorded using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), along with reaction times (RTs) and error rates.

Both groups demonstrated slower RTs and fewer errors in no‐go blocks compared to go blocks, with no significant group differences in behavioral performance. fNIRS analyses revealed significant right‐lateralized increases in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during no‐go blocks in non‐autistic adults only. Autistic adults showed no significant task‐related modulation of prefrontal cortex activity.

While behavioral performance was comparable across groups, only non‐autistic participants showed task‐related modulation of dlPFC activity. These findings highlight differential neural engagement during inhibition and illustrate the potential of fNIRS paradigms for examining the executive functioning of autistic individuals in VR.

In a VR‐based go/no‐go task combined with fNIRS, autistic and non‐autistic adults showed comparable behavioral performance, but only non‐autistic adults exhibited increased right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation during response inhibition, highlighting differential neural engagement and illustrating the potential of fNIRS paradigms for examining executive functioning of autistic individuals in VR.

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