Peak frequency of the sensorimotor mu rhythm varies with autism-spectrum traits

作者：Caroline Strang, Alison Harris, Eric J. Moody, Catherine L. Reed · 发表于：Frontiers in Neuroscience · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.3389/fnins.2022.950539 · 被引用次数：7 · 研究领域：Autism Spectrum Disorder Research、EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces、Action Observation and Synchronization

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental syndrome characterized by impairments in social perception and communication. Growing evidence suggests that the relationship between deficits in social perception and ASD may extend into the neurotypical population. In electroencephalography (EEG), high autism-spectrum traits in both ASD and neurotypical samples are associated with changes to the mu rhythm, an alpha-band (8-12 Hz) oscillation measured over sensorimotor cortex which typically shows reductions in spectral power during both one's own movements and observation of others' actions. This mu suppression is thought to reflect integration of perceptual and motor representations for understanding of others' mental states, which may be disrupted in individuals with autism-spectrum traits. However, because spectral power is usually quantified at the group level, it has limited usefulness for characterizing individual variation in the mu rhythm, particularly with respect to autism-spectrum traits. Instead, individual peak frequency may provide a better measure of mu rhythm variability across participants. Previous developmental studies have linked ASD to slowing of individual peak frequency in the alpha band, or peak alpha frequency (PAF), predominantly associated with selective attention. Yet individual variability in the peak mu frequency (PMF) remains largely unexplored, particularly with respect to autism-spectrum traits. Here we quantified peak frequency of occip...