Infant excitation/inhibition balance interacts with executive attention to predict autistic traits in childhood

Molecular Autism

Research

Luke Mason¹  Jannath Begum-Ali¹  Emily J. H. Jones¹  Mark H. Johnson²  Jonathan Green³  Shruti Garg³  Tony Charman⁴  Andrew Pickles⁴  Virginia Carter Leno⁴  Greg Pasco⁴  Amy Goodwin⁴ 

[1] Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK;Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK;Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK;Faculty of Biological Medical and Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK;Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre, Manchester, UK;Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK;

关键词: Infants;    Autism;    ADHD;    NF1;    E/I balance;    Executive functioning;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13229-022-00526-1

 received in 2022-04-12, accepted in 2022-11-29,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAutism is proposed to be characterised by an atypical balance of cortical excitation and inhibition (E/I). However, most studies have examined E/I alterations in older autistic individuals, meaning that findings could in part reflect homeostatic compensation. To assess the directionality of effects, it is necessary to examine alterations in E/I balance early in the lifespan before symptom emergence. Recent explanatory frameworks have argued that it is also necessary to consider how early risk features interact with later developing modifier factors to predict autism outcomes.MethodWe indexed E/I balance in early infancy by extracting the aperiodic exponent of the slope of the electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectrum (‘1/f’). To validate our index of E/I balance, we tested for differences in the aperiodic exponent in 10-month-old infants with (n = 22) and without (n = 27) neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a condition thought to be characterised by alterations to cortical inhibition. We then tested for E/I alterations in a larger heterogeneous longitudinal cohort of infants with and without a family history of neurodevelopmental conditions (n = 150) who had been followed to early childhood. We tested the relevance of alterations in E/I balance and our proposed modifier, executive attention, by assessing whether associations between 10-month aperiodic slope and 36-month neurodevelopmental traits were moderated by 24-month executive attention. Analyses adjusted for age at EEG assessment, sex and number of EEG trials.ResultsInfants with NF1 were characterised by a higher aperiodic exponent, indicative of greater inhibition, supporting our infant measure of E/I. Longitudinal analyses showed a significant interaction between aperiodic slope and executive attention, such that higher aperiodic exponents predicted greater autistic traits in childhood, but only in infants who also had weaker executive functioning abilities.LimitationsThe current study relied on parent report of infant executive functioning-type abilities; future work is required to replicate effects with objective measures of cognition.ConclusionsResults suggest alterations in E/I balance are on the developmental pathway to autism outcomes, and that higher executive functioning abilities may buffer the impact of early cortical atypicalities, consistent with proposals that stronger executive functioning abilities may modify the impact of a wide range of risk factors.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022

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