Brain Oscillations during Visuomotor Processing in Children with ASD

Autism Spectrum disorder (ASD) has been reported to often involve significant motor dysfunction in addition to other core traits. While individual differences in visual processing have also been noted in individuals with ASD. However, the brain oscillations between visual and motor processing in ASD are poorly understood due to a lack of research surrounding the topic. To elucidate this, we focused on the power-power correlation between visual- and motor-related oscillations. We recorded magnetoencephalography in 18 children with ASD and 19 IQ-matched typically developing children aged 4-7 while they pressed a button during a visual-targeted motor task. We estimated visual- and motor-related brain oscillations and focused on the gamma oscillations. We observed gamma oscillatory power changes during the visual-targeted motor task in both groups. We further found statistically significant differences in motor-related gamma power in the right primary motor cortex, but not in the left primary motor cortex between the two groups. We finally found a significant correlation between the left visual gamma power (50-60 Hz, 150-450ms) and the left motor gamma power (70-90 Hz, 0-100 ms) in the TD group. The current findings revealed differences in visuomotor processing in individuals with ASD compared to TD children. These results may be helpful in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying visuomotor processing in ASD, supporting the development of a potential biomarker for ASD.