A study exploring the neural mechanisms underlying tone perception in children with autism spectrum disorder

This study analyzed the factors influencing the automatic processing of tone information and pitch perception in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by recording electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, and explored the underlying neural mechanisms. We conducted an oddball paradigm with tone and pure tone stimulation on 10 children with ASD and 10 typically developing (TD) children, recorded Mismatch negativity(MMN) and EEG data, and subsequently analyzed them. In the MMN analysis, we focused on EEG data from several brain regions, including Cz, Pz, and Fz. Notably, children with ASD exhibited significant differences in their responses to tonal versus non-tonal stimuli at Cz and Pz positions, and the latency differences between the ASD and TD groups were also statistically significant. This finding indicates that children with ASD experience delayed neural responses when confronted with auditory stimuli. This phenomenon may reflect certain delays in neural development, particularly in advanced auditory processing and frequency change perception, among children with ASD. The latency delay may be associated with differences in neural pathway connectivity and brain region activation patterns in these children. Additionally, a frequency domain analysis of EEG data was conducted to examine brain activity patterns under different types of stimuli. Significant differences in neural activity were observed between the ASD and TD groups in response to pure tone and tone stimuli. Firstly, the variations in MMN latency for auditory stimuli among children with ASD reveal their unique traits in neural information processing. Specifically, their delayed response to tone stimuli suggests increased neural resource consumption when processing emotional and complex social audio information, providing crucial empirical evidence for the neural mechanisms underlying ASD. These findings not only enhance our understanding of auditory processing disorders in ASD but also offer new theoretical support for early diagnosis and intervention strategies.