For a study, the researchers examined auditory repetition suppression and change detection at 5 and 10 months in infants with and without Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), a condition associated with a higher likelihood of developing ASD. Sensory modulation difficulties were common in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and could contribute to other social and non-social symptoms. In typically developing infants, suppression to vowel repetition and enhanced responses to vowel/pitch change lowered with age over posterior regions, becoming more frontally specific, the age-related change was more minor in the NF1 group. While both groups detected changes in vowel and pitch, the NF1 group was essentially slower to show a differentiated neural response. Auditory responses did not relate to later language but were told to later ASD traits. The observations represented the first demonstration of atypical brains responding to sounds in infants with NF1 and suggested they may relate to the likelihood of later ASD. ASD was characterized by difficulties in social communication and restrictive and repetitive behaviors. Recently, sensory symptoms have been recognized as a core part of the diagnostic profile.
Link:jneurodevdisorders.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s11689-021-09364-3
