The developmental trajectory of functional excitation-inhibition balance relates to language abilities in autistic and allistic children.

Autor: Plueckebaum H; Research Group Language Cycles, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.; Center for Cognitive Science, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Kaiserslautern, Germany., Meyer L; Research Group Language Cycles, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.; Clinic for Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany., Beck AK; Center for Cognitive Science, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Kaiserslautern, Germany., Menn KH; Research Group Language Cycles, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.; Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.; International Max Planck Research School on Neuroscience of Communication: Function, Structure, and Plasticity, Leipzig, Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research [Autism Res] 2023 Sep; Vol. 16 (9), pp. 1681-1692. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jul 26.
DOI: 10.1002/aur.2992
Abstrakt: Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that has been related to an overall imbalance between the brain's excitatory (E) and inhibitory (I) systems. Such an EI imbalance can lead to structural and functional cortical deviances and thus alter information processing in the brain, ultimately giving rise to autism traits. However, the developmental trajectory of EI imbalances across childhood and adolescence has not been investigated yet. Therefore, its relationship to autism traits is not well understood. In the present study, we determined a functional measure of the EI balance (f-EIB) from resting-state electrophysiological recordings for a final sample of 92 autistic children from 6 to 17 years of age and 100 allistic (i.e., non-autistic) children matched by age, sex, and nonverbal-IQ. We related the developmental trajectory of f-EIB to behavioral assessments of autism traits as well as language ability. Our results revealed differential EI trajectories for autistic compared to allistic children. Importantly, the developmental trajectory of f-EIB values related to individual language ability. In particular, elevated excitability in late childhood and early adolescence was linked to decreased listening comprehension. Our findings provide evidence against a general EI imbalance in autistic children when correcting for non-verbal IQ. Instead, we show that the developmental trajectory of EI balance shares variance with autism trait development at a specific age range. This is consistent with the proposal that the late development of inhibitory brain activity is a key substrate of autism traits.
(© 2023 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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