Modulation of EEG theta by naturalistic social content is not altered in infants with family history of autism

Haartsen, R; Charman, T; Pasco, G; Johnson, MH; Jones, EJH; Baron-Cohen, S; Bedford, R; Blasi, A; Bolton, P; Chandler, S; Cheung, C; Davies, K; Elsabbagh, M; Fernandes, J; Gammer, I; Garwood, H; Gliga, T; Guiraud, J; Hudry, Kristelle; Liew, M; Lloyd-Fox, S; Maris, H; O’Hara, L; Pickles, A; Ribeiro, H; Salomone, E; Tucker, L; Volein, A

doi:10.26181/23558544.v1

1217607_Haartsen,R_2022.pdf (3 MB)

Modulation of EEG theta by naturalistic social content is not altered in infants with family history of autism

journal contribution

posted on 2023-06-22, 04:44 authored by R Haartsen, T Charman, G Pasco, MH Johnson, EJH Jones, S Baron-Cohen, R Bedford, A Blasi, P Bolton, S Chandler, C Cheung, K Davies, M Elsabbagh, J Fernandes, I Gammer, H Garwood, T Gliga, J Guiraud, Kristelle HudryKristelle Hudry, M Liew, S Lloyd-Fox, H Maris, L O’Hara, A Pickles, H Ribeiro, E Salomone, L Tucker, A Volein

Theta oscillations (spectral power and connectivity) are sensitive to the social content of an experience in typically developing infants, providing a possible marker of early social brain development. Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting early social behaviour, but links to underlying social brain function remain unclear. We explored whether modulations of theta spectral power and connectivity by naturalistic social content in infancy are related to family history for autism. Fourteen-month-old infants with (family history; FH; N = 75) and without (no family history; NFH; N = 26) a first-degree relative with autism watched social and non-social videos during EEG recording. We calculated theta (4–5 Hz) spectral power and connectivity modulations (social–non-social) and associated them with outcomes at 36 months. We replicated previous findings of increased theta power and connectivity during social compared to non-social videos. Theta modulations with social content were similar between groups, for both power and connectivity. Together, these findings suggest that neural responses to naturalistic social stimuli may not be strongly altered in 14-month-old infants with family history of autism.

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the European Community's Horizon 2020 Program under grant agreement n degrees 642990 (Brainview)(RH, TC, MJ, EJ: analysis, interpretation of the data, and writing the manuscript), and the Birkbeck Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF2), grant ref 204770/Z/16/Z (RH: analysis, interpretation of the data, and writing the manuscript); the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n degrees 115300, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007 -2013) and EFPIA companies' in kind contribution (TC, GP, EJ, MJ: design of the study and data collection); and the UK Medical Research Council (G0701484 & MR/K021389/1), and the BASIS funding consortium led by Autistica (www.basisnetwork.org) (TC, GP, MJ, EJ, TBT: design of the study and data collection). The results leading to this publication have received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 777394 for the project AIMS-2-TRIALS. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA and AUTISM SPEAKS, Autistica, SFARI (RH, TC, GP, MJ, EJ: analysis, interpretation of the data, and writing the manuscript).

History

Publication Date

2022-12-01

Journal

Scientific Reports

Volume

12

Article Number

20758

Pagination

14p.

Publisher

Springer Nature

ISSN

2045-2322

Rights Statement

© The Author(s) 2022 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.