scholarly journals Neuromagnetic Beta-Band Oscillations during Motor Imitation in Youth with Autism

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Buard ◽  
E. Kronberg ◽  
S. Steinmetz ◽  
S. Hepburn ◽  
D. C. Rojas
Keyword(s):  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Motor Impairments ◽  
Cortical Oscillations ◽  
Cortical Rhythms ◽  
Motor Imitation ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Adults With Asd

Children with ASD often exhibit early difficulties with action imitation, possibly due to low-level sensory or motor impairments. Impaired cortical rhythms have been demonstrated in adults with ASD during motor imitation. While those oscillations reflect an age-dependent process, they have not been fully investigated in youth with ASD. We collected magnetoencephalography data to examine patterns of oscillatory activity in the mu (8-13 Hz) and beta frequency (15-30 Hz) range in 14 adolescents with and 14 adolescents without ASD during a fine motor imitation task. Typically developing adolescents exhibited adult-like patterns of motor signals, e.g., event-related beta and mu desynchronization (ERD) before and during the movement and a postmovement beta rebound (PMBR) after the movement. In contrast, those with ASD exhibited stronger beta and mu-ERD and reduced PMBR. Behavioral performance was similar between groups despite differences in motor cortical oscillations. Finally, we observed age-related increases in PBMR and beta-ERD in the typically developing children, but this correlation was not present in the autism group. These results suggest reduced inhibitory drive in cortical rhythms in youth with autism during intact motor imitation. Furthermore, impairments in motor brain signals in autism may not be due to delayed brain development. In the context of the excitation-inhibition imbalance perspectives of autism, we offer new insights into altered organization of neurophysiological networks.

scholarly journals Two frequency bands contain the most stimulus-related information in visual cortex

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Lewis ◽  
Conrado A. Bosman ◽  
Nicolas M. Brunet ◽  
Bruss Lima ◽  
Mark J. Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Frequency Bands ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Cortical Oscillations

AbstractSensory cortices represent the world through the activity of diversely tuned cells. How the activity of single cells is coordinated within populations and across sensory hierarchies is largely unknown. Cortical oscillations may coordinate local and distributed neuronal groups. Using datasets from intracortical multi-electrode recordings and from large-scale electrocorticography (ECoG) grids, we investigated how visual features could be extracted from the local field potential (LFP) and how this compared with the information available from multi-unit activity (MUA). MUA recorded from macaque V1 contained comparable amounts of information as simultaneously recorded LFP power in two frequency bands, one in the alpha-beta band and the other in the gamma band. ECoG-LFP contained information in the same bands as microelectrode-LFP, even when identifying natural scenes. The fact that information was contained in the same bands in both intracortical and ECoG recordings suggests that oscillatory activity could play similar roles at both spatial scales.

scholarly journals An Analysis of the External Validity of EEG Spectral Power in an Uncontrolled Outdoor Environment during Default and Complex Neurocognitive States

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 330
Author(s):  
Dalton J. Edwards ◽  
Logan T. Trujillo
Keyword(s):  
External Validity ◽  
Spectral Power ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Brain State ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Eeg Spectral Power ◽  
Eeg Power ◽  
Human Participants

Traditionally, quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) studies collect data within controlled laboratory environments that limit the external validity of scientific conclusions. To probe these validity limits, we used a mobile EEG system to record electrophysiological signals from human participants while they were located within a controlled laboratory environment and an uncontrolled outdoor environment exhibiting several moderate background influences. Participants performed two tasks during these recordings, one engaging brain activity related to several complex cognitive functions (number sense, attention, memory, executive function) and the other engaging two default brain states. We computed EEG spectral power over three frequency bands (theta: 4–7 Hz, alpha: 8–13 Hz, low beta: 14–20 Hz) where EEG oscillatory activity is known to correlate with the neurocognitive states engaged by these tasks. Null hypothesis significance testing yielded significant EEG power effects typical of the neurocognitive states engaged by each task, but only a beta-band power difference between the two background recording environments during the default brain state. Bayesian analysis showed that the remaining environment null effects were unlikely to reflect measurement insensitivities. This overall pattern of results supports the external validity of laboratory EEG power findings for complex and default neurocognitive states engaged within moderately uncontrolled environments.

scholarly journals Single-Word Speech Intelligibility in Children and Adults With Down Syndrome

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 222-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa Wild ◽  
Houri K. Vorperian ◽  
Ray D. Kent ◽  
Daniel M. Bolt ◽  
Diane Austin
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Vowel Production ◽  
Adult Men ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Assessment And Treatment ◽  
High Vowels

Purpose A single-word identification test was used to study speech production in children and adults with Down syndrome (DS) to determine the developmental pattern of speech intelligibility with an emphasis on vowels. Method Speech recordings were collected from 62 participants with DS aged 4–40 years and 25 typically developing participants aged 4–7 years. Panels of 5 adult lay listeners transcribed the speech recordings orthographically, and their responses were scored in comparison with the speakers' target words. Results Speech intelligibility in persons with DS improved with age, especially between the ages of 4 and 16 years. Whereas consonants contribute to intelligibility, vowels also played an important role in reduced intelligibility with an apparent developmental difference in low versus high vowels, where the vowels /æ/ and/ɑ/ developed at a later age than /i/ and /u/. Interspeaker variability was large, with male individuals being generally less intelligible than female individuals and some adult men having very low intelligibility. Conclusion Results show age-related patterns in speech intelligibility in persons with DS and identify the contribution of dimensions of vowel production to intelligibility. The methods used clarify the phonetic basis of reduced intelligibility, with implications for assessment and treatment.

scholarly journals Intact context memory performance in adults with autism spectrum disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidni A. Justus ◽  
Patrick S. Powell ◽  
Audrey Duarte
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Memory Accuracy ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Adults With Asd ◽  
Context Memory

AbstractResearch on memory in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) finds increased difficulty encoding contextual associations in episodic memory and suggests executive dysfunction (e.g., selective attention, cognitive flexibility) and deficient metacognitive monitoring as potential contributing factors. Findings from our lab suggest that age-related impairments in selective attention contribute to those in context memory accuracy and older adults tended to show dependence in context memory accuracy between relevant and irrelevant context details (i.e., hyper-binding). Using an aging framework, we tested the effects of selective attention on context memory in a sample of 23 adults with ASD and 23 typically developed adults. Participants studied grayscale objects flanked by two types of contexts (color, scene) on opposing sides and were told to attend to only one object-context relationship, ignoring the other context. At test, participants made object and context recognition decisions and judgment of confidence decisions allowing for an evaluation of context memory performance, hyper-binding, and metacognitive performance for context judgments in a single task. Results showed that adults with ASD performed similarly to typically developed adults on all measures. These findings suggest that context memory performance is not always disrupted in adults with ASD, even when demands on selective attention are high. We discuss the need for continued research to evaluate episodic memory in a wider variety of adults with ASD.

scholarly journals Electrophysiological signatures of brain aging in autism spectrum disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail Dickinson ◽  
Shafali Jeste ◽  
Elizabeth Milne
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Brain Aging ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Aging Brain ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Care Plans ◽  
Alpha Frequency ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Adults With Asd

AbstractEmerging evidence suggests that aging processes may be altered in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it remains unclear if oscillatory slowing, a key neurophysiological change in the aging brain, manifests atypically in this population. This study sought to examine patterns of age-related oscillatory slowing in adults with ASD, captured by reductions in the brain’s peak alpha frequency. Resting-state EEG data from adults (18-70 years) with ASD (N=93) and age-matched neurotypical (NT) controls (N=87) were pooled from three independent datasets. A robust curve-fitting procedure quantified the peak frequency of alpha oscillations (7-13Hz) across all brain regions. Associations between peak alpha frequency and age were assessed and compared between groups. Consistent with characteristic patterns of oscillatory slowing, peak alpha frequency was negatively associated with age across the entire sample (p<.0001). A significant group by age interaction revealed that this relationship was more pronounced in adults with ASD (p<.01), suggesting that that age-related oscillatory slowing may be accelerated in this population. Scalable EEG measures such as peak alpha frequency could provide insights into neural aging that are crucially needed to inform care plans and preventive interventions that can promote successful aging in ASD.

scholarly journals Cortical entrainment to music and its modulation by expertise

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (45) ◽  
pp. E6233-E6242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith B. Doelling ◽  
David Poeppel
Keyword(s):  
Music Perception ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Cortical Oscillations ◽  
Bidirectional Relationship ◽  
Delta Activity ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Neural Entrainment ◽  
Cortical Entrainment

Recent studies establish that cortical oscillations track naturalistic speech in a remarkably faithful way. Here, we test whether such neural activity, particularly low-frequency (<8 Hz; delta–theta) oscillations, similarly entrain to music and whether experience modifies such a cortical phenomenon. Music of varying tempi was used to test entrainment at different rates. In three magnetoencephalography experiments, we recorded from nonmusicians, as well as musicians with varying years of experience. Recordings from nonmusicians demonstrate cortical entrainment that tracks musical stimuli over a typical range of tempi, but not at tempi below 1 note per second. Importantly, the observed entrainment correlates with performance on a concurrent pitch-related behavioral task. In contrast, the data from musicians show that entrainment is enhanced by years of musical training, at all presented tempi. This suggests a bidirectional relationship between behavior and cortical entrainment, a phenomenon that has not previously been reported. Additional analyses focus on responses in the beta range (∼15–30 Hz)—often linked to delta activity in the context of temporal predictions. Our findings provide evidence that the role of beta in temporal predictions scales to the complex hierarchical rhythms in natural music and enhances processing of musical content. This study builds on important findings on brainstem plasticity and represents a compelling demonstration that cortical neural entrainment is tightly coupled to both musical training and task performance, further supporting a role for cortical oscillatory activity in music perception and cognition.

GAMMA-BAND AND BETA-BAND CORTICAL OSCILLATIONS

1992 ◽  
pp. 847-850
Author(s):  
Rodney M.J. Cotterill ◽  
Claus Nielsen
Keyword(s):  
Gamma Band ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Cortical Oscillations

scholarly journals An Exploratory Study of Imagining Sounds and “Hearing” Music in Autism

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1123-1132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Bacon ◽  
C. Philip Beaman ◽  
Fang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Auditory Imagery ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
And Control ◽  
Adults With Asd

AbstractIndividuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reportedly possess preserved or superior music-processing skills compared to their typically developing counterparts. We examined auditory imagery and earworms (tunes that get “stuck” in the head) in adults with ASD and controls. Both groups completed a short earworm questionnaire together with the Bucknell Auditory Imagery Scale. Results showed poorer auditory imagery in the ASD group for all types of auditory imagery. However, the ASD group did not report fewer earworms than matched controls. These data suggest a possible basis in poor auditory imagery for poor prosody in ASD, but also highlight a separability between auditory imagery and control of musical memories. The separability is present in the ASD group but not in typically developing individuals.

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