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Friday, May 16, 2008
Champagne Terrace/Bordeaux (Novotel London West)
Background: The development of adapted behaviours requires to perceive the surrounding world as a whole, taking into account the multiple sensory information that permanently stimulate our different senses. The ability to integrate auditory and visual information is essential in communication development, which is particularly impaired in children with autism.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the electrophysiological patterns of auditory–visual interactions during bimodal event perception in children with autism.
Methods: Event-related potentials were recorded in response to auditory, visual, and bimodal auditory-visual stimuli (synchronously delivered) in two sub-groups of children with autism aged 5 to 10 years (n=9) and aged 11 to 15 years (n=9), compared to 18 age-matched controls with typical development. Auditory-visual interactions were estimated in the difference between the response to the bimodal stimuli and the algebraic sum of the responses to the unimodal stimuli. Statistical significance of the amplitude of this difference was tested using Student’s t tests, and topographic analyses of the sensory responses and of the cross-modal interactions were performed using scalp potential and current density mapping.
Results: Autistic children’s unisensory responses were overall preserved whatever the age. These unimodal responses were not modulated by the presence of concomitant information from another sensory modality (bimodal conditions) in children with autism, contrary to what was observed in controls. Moreover, interaction effects were observed in nonsensory-specific areas with a reverse lateralization in autistic compared to typically developped children. This pattern was found in both sub-groups of age, underlying the robustness of the effects.
Conclusions: These findings provide evidence for an anomalous pattern of cross-modal interactions in children with autism which may contribute to ongoing difficulties in communication and social interactions in these children.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the electrophysiological patterns of auditory–visual interactions during bimodal event perception in children with autism.
Methods: Event-related potentials were recorded in response to auditory, visual, and bimodal auditory-visual stimuli (synchronously delivered) in two sub-groups of children with autism aged 5 to 10 years (n=9) and aged 11 to 15 years (n=9), compared to 18 age-matched controls with typical development. Auditory-visual interactions were estimated in the difference between the response to the bimodal stimuli and the algebraic sum of the responses to the unimodal stimuli. Statistical significance of the amplitude of this difference was tested using Student’s t tests, and topographic analyses of the sensory responses and of the cross-modal interactions were performed using scalp potential and current density mapping.
Results: Autistic children’s unisensory responses were overall preserved whatever the age. These unimodal responses were not modulated by the presence of concomitant information from another sensory modality (bimodal conditions) in children with autism, contrary to what was observed in controls. Moreover, interaction effects were observed in nonsensory-specific areas with a reverse lateralization in autistic compared to typically developped children. This pattern was found in both sub-groups of age, underlying the robustness of the effects.
Conclusions: These findings provide evidence for an anomalous pattern of cross-modal interactions in children with autism which may contribute to ongoing difficulties in communication and social interactions in these children.