Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Gamma activation in young people with autism spectrum disorders and typically-developing controls when viewing emotions on faces

Wright, B.; Alderson-Day, B.; Prendergast, G.; Bennett, S.; Jordan, J.; Whitton, C.; Gouws, A.; Jones, N.; Attur, R.; Tomlinson, H.; Green, G.

Gamma activation in young people with autism spectrum disorders and typically-developing controls when viewing emotions on faces Thumbnail


Authors

B. Wright

G. Prendergast

S. Bennett

J. Jordan

C. Whitton

A. Gouws

N. Jones

R. Attur

H. Tomlinson

G. Green



Abstract

Background: Behavioural studies have highlighted irregularities in recognition of facial affect in children and young people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Recent findings from studies utilising electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) have identified abnormal activation and irregular maintenance of gamma (.30 Hz) range oscillations when ASD individuals attempt basic visual and auditory tasks. Methodology/Principal Fndings: The pilot study reported here is the first study to use spatial filtering techniques in MEG to explore face processing in children with ASD. We set out to examine theoretical suggestions that gamma activation underlying face processing may be different in a group of children and young people with ASD (n = 13) compared to typically developing (TD) age, gender and IQ matched controls. Beamforming and virtual electrode techniques were used to assess spatially localised induced and evoked activity. While lower-band (3–30 Hz) responses to faces were similar between groups, the ASD gamma response in occipital areas was observed to be largely absent when viewing emotions on faces. Virtual electrode analysis indicated the presence of intact evoked responses but abnormal induced activity in ASD participants. Conclusions/Significance: These findings lend weight to previous suggestions that specific components of the early visual response to emotional faces is abnormal in ASD. Elucidation of the nature and specificity of these findings is worthy of further research.

Citation

Wright, B., Alderson-Day, B., Prendergast, G., Bennett, S., Jordan, J., Whitton, C., …Green, G. (2012). Gamma activation in young people with autism spectrum disorders and typically-developing controls when viewing emotions on faces. PLoS ONE, 7(7), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041326

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jun 20, 2012
Publication Date Jul 31, 2012
Deposit Date Nov 28, 2012
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal PLoS ONE
Publisher Public Library of Science
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 7
Issue 7
DOI https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041326

Files

Published Journal Article (4.8 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© Wright et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations