Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

LIVE: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)
Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Molecular Autism
Published in: Molecular Autism 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research

Name recognition in autism: EEG evidence of altered patterns of brain activity and connectivity

Authors: Anna Nowicka, Hanna B. Cygan, Paweł Tacikowski, Paweł Ostaszewski, Rafał Kuś

Published in: Molecular Autism | Issue 1/2016

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Impaired orienting to social stimuli is one of the core early symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, in contrast to faces, name processing has rarely been studied in individuals with ASD. Here, we investigated brain activity and functional connectivity associated with recognition of names in the high-functioning ASD group and in the control group.

Methods

EEG was recorded in 15 young males with ASD and 15 matched one-to-one control individuals. EEG data were analyzed with the event-related potential (ERP), event-related desynchronization and event-related synchronization (ERD/S), as well as coherence and direct transfer function (DTF) methods. Four categories of names were presented visually: one’s own, close-other’s, famous, and unknown.

Results

Differences between the ASD and control groups were found for ERP, coherence, and DTF. In individuals with ASD, P300 (a positive ERP component) to own-name and to a close-other’s name were similar whereas in control participants, P300 to own-name was enhanced when compared to all other names. Analysis of coherence and DTF revealed disruption of fronto-posterior task-related connectivity in individuals with ASD within the beta range frequencies. Moreover, DTF indicated the directionality of those impaired connections—they were going from parieto-occipital to frontal regions. DTF also showed inter-group differences in short-range connectivity: weaker connections within the frontal region and stronger connections within the occipital region in the ASD group in comparison to the control group.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest a lack of the self-preference effect and impaired functioning of the attentional network during recognition of visually presented names in individuals with ASD.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Literature
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Lombardo MV, Baron-Cohen S. Unraveling the paradox of the autistic self. WIREs Cogn Sci. 2010;1:393–403.CrossRef
6.
7.
Campatelli G, Federico RR, Apicella F, Sicca F, Muratori F. Face processing in children with ASD: Literature review. Res Autism Spect Dis. 2013;7:444–54.CrossRef
8.
9.
10.
Weigelt S, Koldewyn K, Kanwisher N. Face identity recognition in autism spectrum disorders: a review of behavioral studies. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2012;36:1060–84.PubMedCrossRef
11.
Tacikowski P, Jednorog K, Marchewka A, Nowicka A. How multiple repetitions influence the processing of self-, famous and unknown names and faces: an ERP study. Int J Psychophysiol. 2011;79:219–30.PubMedCrossRef
12.
Tacikowski P, Nowicka A. Allocation of attention to self-name and self-face: An ERP study. Biol Psychol. 2010;84:318–24.PubMedCrossRef
13.
Kotlewska I, Nowicka A. Present self, past self and close-other: event-related study of face and name detection. Biol Psychol. 2015;110:201–11.PubMedCrossRef
14.
15.
Gray HM, Ambady N, Lowenthal WT, Deldin P. P300 as an index of attention to self-relevant stimuli. J Exp Soc Psychol. 2004;40:216–24.CrossRef
16.
Cherry EC. Some experiments on the recognition of speech, with one and with two ears. J Acoust Soc Am. 1953;25:975–9.CrossRef
17.
Wood N, Cowan N. The cocktail party phenomenon revisited: how frequent are the attention shifts to one’s own name in an irrelevant auditory channel. J Exp Psychol Learn. 1995;21:255–60.CrossRef
18.
Arnell KM, Shapiro KL, Sorensen RE. Reduced repetition blindness for one's own name. Vis Cogn. 1999;6:609–35.CrossRef
19.
Moray N. Attention in dichotic-listening—affective cues and the influence of instructions. Q J Exp Psychol. 1959;11:56–60.CrossRef
20.
Shapiro KL, Caldwell J, Sorensen RE. Personal names and the attentional blink: a visual “cocktail party” effect. J Exp Psychol Hum. 1997;23:504–14.CrossRef
21.
Grossmann T, Parise E, Friederici AD. The detection of communicative signals directed at the self in infant prefrontal cortex. Front Hum Neurosci. 2010;4:201.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
22.
Mandel DR, Jusczyk PW, Nelson DG. Does sentential prosody help infants organize and remember speech information? Cognition. 1994;53:155–80.PubMedCrossRef
23.
24.
Watson RS. The named and the nameless: gender and person in Chinese society. Am Ethnol. 1986;13:619–31.CrossRef
25.
Martinelli P, Sperduti M, Piolino P. Neural substrates of the self-memory system: new insights from a meta-analysis. Hum Brain Mapp. 2013;34:1515–29.PubMedCrossRef
26.
Nadig AS, Ozonoff S, Young GS, Rozga A, Sigman M, Rogers SJ. A prospective study of response to name in infants at risk for autism. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161:378–83.PubMedCrossRef
27.
Zwaigenbaum L, Bryson S, Rogers T, Roberts W, Brian J, Szatmari P. Behavioral manifestations of autism in the first year of life. Int J Dev Neurosci. 2005;23:143–52.PubMedCrossRef
28.
Carmody DP, Moreno R, Mars AE, Seshadri K, Lambert GH, Lewis M. Brief report: brain activation to social words in a sedated child with autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 2007;37:1381–5.PubMedCrossRef
29.
Cygan HB, Tacikowski P, Ostaszewski P, Chojnicka I, Nowicka A. Neural correlates of own name and own face detection in autism spectrum disorder. PLoS One. 2014;9:86020.CrossRef
30.
31.
32.
Desimone R, Duncan J. Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. Annu Rev Neurosci. 1995;18:193–222.PubMedCrossRef
33.
34.
35.
36.
Klimesch W, Sauseng P, Hanslmayr S. EEG alpha oscillations: the inhibition-timing hypothesis. Brain Res Rev. 2007;53:63–88.PubMedCrossRef
37.
Knyazev GG. Motivation, emotion, and their inhibitory control mirrored in brain oscillations. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2007;31:377–95.PubMedCrossRef
38.
Palva S, Palva JM. New vistas for α-frequency band oscillations. Trends Neurosci. 2007;30:150–8.PubMedCrossRef
39.
Rihs TA, Michel CM, Thut G. Mechanisms of selective inhibition in visual spatial attention are indexed by alpha-band EEG synchronization. Eur J Neurosci. 2007;25:603–10.PubMedCrossRef
40.
Awh E, Jonides J. Overlapping mechanisms of attention and spatial working memory. Trends Cogn Sci. 2001;5:119–26.PubMedCrossRef
41.
Constantinidis C, Franowicz MN, Goldman-Rakic PS. Coding specificity in cortical microcircuits: a multiple-electrode analysis of primate prefrontal cortex. J Neurosci. 2001;21:3646–55.PubMed
42.
43.
Neuper C, Pfurtscheller G. Event-related dynamics of cortical rhythms: frequency-specific features and functional correlates. Int J Psychophysiol. 2001;43:41–58.PubMedCrossRef
44.
Gola M, Magnusk M, Szumska I, Wróbel A. EEG beta band activity is related to attention and attentional deficits in the visual performance of elderly subjects. Int J Psychophysiol. 2013;89:334–41.PubMedCrossRef
45.
Gross J, Schmitz F, Schnitzler I, Kessler K, Shapiro K, Hommel B, et al. Modulation of long-range neural synchrony reflects temporal limitations of visual attention in humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004;101:13050–5.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
46.
Basile LFH, Anghinah R, Ribeiro P, Ramos RT, Piedade R, Ballester G, Brunetti EP. Interindividual variability in EEG correlates of attention and limits of functional mapping. Int J Psychophysiol. 2007;65:238–51.PubMedCrossRef
47.
Hanslmayer S, Aslan A, Staudigl T, Klimesch W, Herrmann CS, Bauml K. Prestimulus oscillations predict visual perception performance between and within subjects. Neuroimage. 2007;37:1465–73.CrossRef
48.
Engel AK, Fries P. Beta-band oscillations-signalling the status quo? Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2010;20:156–65.PubMedCrossRef
49.
Baker CI, Liu J, Wald LL, Kwong KK, Benner T, Kanwisher N. Visual word processing and experiential origins of functional selectivity in human extrastriate cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007;104:9087–92.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
50.
Portin K, Hari R. Human parieto-occipital visual cortex: lack of retinotopy and foveal magnification. Proc Biol Sci. 1999;26:981–5.CrossRef
51.
Volz KG, Schubotz RI, von Cramon DY. Decision-making and the frontal lobes. Curr Opin Neurol. 2006;19:401–6.PubMedCrossRef
52.
Fuster J. The prefrontal cortex. 4th ed. London: Academic; 2008.
53.
54.
Vissers ME, Cohen MX, Geurts HM. Brain connectivity and high functioning autism: a promising path of research that needs refined models, methodological convergence, and stronger behavioral links. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2012;36:604–25.PubMedCrossRef
55.
Wass S. Distortions and disconnections: disrupted brain connectivity in autism. Brain Cogn. 2011;75:18–28.PubMedCrossRef
56.
Wang J, Barstein J, Ethridge LE, Mosconi MW, Takarae Y, Sweeney JA. Resting state EEG abnormalities in autism spectrum disorders. J Neurodev Disord. 2013;5:24.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
57.
Barttfeld P, Wicker B, Cukier S, Navarta S, Lew S, Sigman M. A big-world network in ASD: dynamical connectivity analysis reflects a deficit in long-range connections and an excess of short-range connections. Neuropsychologia. 2011;49:254–63.PubMedCrossRef
58.
Murias M, Webb SJ, Greenson J, Dawson G. Resting state cortical connectivity reflected in EEG coherence in individuals with autism. Biol Psychiatry. 2007;62:270–3.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
59.
Pfurtscheller G, Lopes da Silva F. Event-related desynchronization (ERD) and event-related synchronization (ERS). In: Niedermayer E, Lopes da Silva F, editors. Electroencephalography: Basic Principles, Clinical Applications, and Related Fields. 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincot, Williams, & Wilkins; 1999. p. 958–965.
60.
Lachaux JP, Lutz A, Rudrauf D, Cosmelli D, Le Van Quyen M, Martinerie J, Varela F. Estimating the time-course of coherence between single-trial brain signals: an introduction to wavelet coherence. Neurophysiol Clin. 2002;32:157–74.PubMedCrossRef
61.
Kamiński MJ, Blinowska KJ. A new method of the description of the information flow in the brain structures. Biol Cybern. 1991;65:203–10.PubMedCrossRef
62.
Kamiński MJ, Ding M, Truccolo WA, Bressler SL. Evaluating causal relations in neural systems: Granger causality, directed transfer function and statistical assessment of significance. Biol Cybern. 2001;85:145–57.PubMedCrossRef
63.
Brzeziński J, Gaul M, Hornowska E, Jaworowska A, Machowski A, Zakrzewska M. WAIS-R (PL) – Skala inteligencji Wechslera dla dorosłych – wersja zrewidowana. Warszawa: Pracownia Testów Psychologicznych Polskiego Towarzystwa Psychologicznego; 2004.
64.
Lord C, Rutter M, DiLavore PC, Risi S. ADOS. Autism diagnostic observation schedule. Manual. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services; 1999.
65.
Lord C, Rutter M, DiLavore PC, Risi S, Gotham K, Bishop SL. ADOS. Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, second edition (ADOS-2). Manual (part I): Modules 1–4. Torrane: Western Psychological Services; 2012.
66.
Rutter M, Le Couteur A, Lord C. ADI-R. Autism diagnostic interview revised. Manual. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services; 2003.
67.
Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S, Skinner R, Martin J, Clubley E. The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ): Evidence from asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians. J Autism Dev Disord. 2001;31:5–17.PubMedCrossRef
68.
Oldfield RC. The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia. 1971;9:97–113.PubMedCrossRef
69.
Tacikowski P, Brechmann A, Nowicka A. Cross-modal pattern of brain activations associated with the processing of self- and significant other's name. Hum Brain Mapp. 2013;34:2069–77.PubMedCrossRef
70.
Kotlewska I, Nowicka A. Present-self, past-self and the close-other: neural correlates of assigning trait adjectives to oneself and others. 2016. doi:10.​1111/​ejn.​13293.
71.
Greenhouse SW, Geisser S. On methods in the analysis of profile data. Psychometrika. 1959;24:95–112.CrossRef
72.
Bell AJ, Sejnowski TJ. An information-maximization approach to blind separation and blind deconvolution. Neural Comput. 1995;7:1129–59.PubMedCrossRef
73.
Jung T, Makeig S, Westerfield M, Townsend J, Courchesne E, Sejnowski T. Analysis and visualization of single-trial event-related potentials. Hum Brain Mapp. 2001;14:166–85.PubMedCrossRef
74.
Luck SJ. Ten simple rules for designing ERP experiments. In: Handy TC, editor. Event-related potentials. A methods handbook. Cambridge: The MIT Press; 2005. p. 209–27.
75.
Fan W, Chen J, Wang XY, Cai R, Tan Q, Chen Y, Yang Q, Zhang S, Wu Y, Yang Z, Wang XA, Zhong Y. Electrophysiological correlation of the degree of self-reference effect. PLoS One. 2013;8:e80289.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
76.
Makeig S. Auditory event-related dynamics of the EEG spectrum and effects of exposure to tones. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1993;86:283–93.PubMedCrossRef
77.
Andrew C, Pfurtscheller G. Event-related coherence as a tool for studying dynamic interaction of brain regions. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1996;98:144–8.PubMedCrossRef
78.
Kus R, Blinowska KJ, Kamiński M, Basinska-Starzycka A. Transmission of information during continuous attention test. Acta Neurobiol Exp. 2008;68:103–12.
79.
Kaminski M, Blinowska KJ. Directed transfer function is not influenced by volume conduction – inexpedient pre-processing should be avoided. Front Comput Neurosci. 2014;8:61.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
80.
van Driel J, Ridderinkhof KR, Cohen MX. Not all errors are alike: theta and alpha EEG dynamics relate to differences in error-processing dynamics. J Neurosci. 2012;47:16795–806.CrossRef
81.
Kriegeskorte N, Simmons WK, Bellgowan PSF, Baker CI. Circular analysis in systems neuroscience—the dangers of double dipping. Nat Neurosci. 2009;12:535–40.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
82.
83.
84.
Kamiński J, Brzezicka A, Gola M, Wróbel A. Beta band oscillations engagement in human alertness process. Int J Psychophysiol. 2012;85:125–8.PubMedCrossRef
85.
Kus R, Kamiński M, Blinowska KJ. Determination of EEG activity propagation: pair-wise versus multichannel estimate. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2004;51:1501–10.PubMedCrossRef
86.
Wróbel A. Beta activity: a carrier for visual attention. Acta Neurobiol Exp. 2000;60:247–60.
87.
Wyczesany M, Ligeza T, Grzybowski S. Effective connectivity during visual processing is affected by emotional state. Brain Imaging Behav. 2015;9:717–28.PubMedCrossRef
88.
Benjamini Y, Yekutieli D. The control of the false discovery rate in multiple testing under dependency. Ann Stat. 2001;29:1165–88.CrossRef
89.
Gunji A, Inagaki M, Inoue Y, Takeshima Y, Kaga M. Event-related potentials of self-face recognition in children with pervasive developmental disorders. Brain Dev. 2009;31:139–47.PubMedCrossRef
90.
Lombardo MV, Chakrabarti B, Bullmore ET, Sadek SA, Pasco G, Wheelwrigh SJ, et al. Atypical neural self-representation in autism. Brain. 2010;133:611–24.PubMedCrossRef
91.
Henderson HA, Zahka NE, Kojkowski NM, Inge AP, Schwartz CB, Hileman CM, et al. Self-referenced memory, social cognition, and symptom presentation in autism. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2009;50:853–61.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
92.
Toichi M, Kamio Y, Okada T, Sakihama M, Youngstrom EA, Findling RL, et al. A lack of self-consciousness in autism. Am J Psychiatry. 2002;159:1422–4.PubMedCrossRef
93.
Coben R, Clarke AR, Hudspeth W, Barry RJ. EEG power and coherence in autistic spectrum disorder. Clin Neurophysiol. 2008;119:1002–9.PubMedCrossRef
94.
95.
Peters JM, Taquet M, Vega C, Jeste SS, Fernández IS, Tan J, et al. Brain functional networks in syndromic and non-syndromic autism: a graph theoretical study of EEG connectivity. BMC Med. 2013;11:54.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
96.
Belmonte MK, Allen G, Beckel-Mitchener A, Boulanger LM, Carper RA, Webb SJ. Autism and abnormal development of brain connectivity. J Neurosci. 2004;24:9228–31.PubMedCrossRef
97.
Léveillé C, Barbeau EB, Bolduc C, Limoges E, Berthiaume C, Chevrier E, et al. Enhanced connectivity between visual cortex and other regions of the brain in autism: a REM sleep EEG coherence study. Autism Res. 2010;3:280–5.PubMedCrossRef
98.
Mathewson KJ, Jetha MK, Drmic IE, Bryson SE, Goldberg JO, Schmid L. Regional EEG alpha power, coherence, and behavioral symptomatology in autism spectrum disorder. Clin Neurophysiol. 2012;123:1798–809.PubMedCrossRef
99.
Catarino A, Andrade A, Churches O, Wagner AP, Baron-Cohen S, Ring H. Task-related functional connectivity in autism spectrum conditions: an EEG study using wavelet transform coherence. Mol Autism. 2013;4:1.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
100.
Perez Velazquez JLP, Barcelo F, Hung Y, Leshchenko Y, Nenadovic V, Belkas J, et al. Decreased brain coordinated activity in autism spectrum disorders during executive tasks: reduced long-range synchronization in the fronto-parietal networks. Int J Psychophysiol. 2009;73:341–9.PubMedCrossRef
101.
Just MA, Keller TA, Malave VL, Kana RK, Varma S. Autism as a neural systems disorder: a theory of frontal-posterior underconnectivity. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2012;36:1292–313.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
102.
Maximo JO, Keown CL, Nair A, Müller RA. Approaches to local connectivity in autism using resting state functional connectivity MRI. Front Hum Neurosci. 2013;7:605.PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef
103.
Courchesne E, Lincoln AJ, Yeung-Courchesne R, EImasian R, Grillon C. Pathophysiologic findings in nonretarded autism and receptive developmental language disorders. J Autism Dev Disord. 1989;19:1–17.PubMedCrossRef
104.
Lincoln AJ, Courchesne E, Harms L, Allen M. Contextual probability evaluation in autistic, receptive developmental language disorder, and control children: event-related brain potential evidence. J Autism Dev Disord. 1993;23:37–58.PubMedCrossRef
105.
Klimesch W. Memory processes, brain oscillations and EEG synchronization. Int J Psychophysiol. 1996;24:61–100.PubMedCrossRef
106.
Aftanas LI, Reva NV, Varlamov AA, Pavlov SV, Makhnev VP. Analysis of evoked EEG synchronization and desynchronization in conditions of emotional activation in humans: temporal and topographic characteristics. Neurosci Behav Physiol. 2004;34:859–67.PubMedCrossRef
Metadata
Title
Name recognition in autism: EEG evidence of altered patterns of brain activity and connectivity
Authors
Anna Nowicka
Hanna B. Cygan
Paweł Tacikowski
Paweł Ostaszewski
Rafał Kuś
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Molecular Autism / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 2040-2392
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-016-0102-z

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

Molecular Autism 1/2016 Go to the issue

Short report

Short report: relationship between restricted and repetitive behaviours in children with autism spectrum disorder and their parents

Review

From molecules to neural morphology: understanding neuroinflammation in autism spectrum condition

Research

A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of d-cycloserine for the enhancement of social skills training in autism spectrum disorders

Research

Others’ emotions teach, but not in autism: an eye-tracking pupillometry study

Research

Increased expression of the PI3K catalytic subunit p110δ underlies elevated S6 phosphorylation and protein synthesis in an individual with autism from a multiplex family

Research

Placental methylome analysis from a prospective autism study