High-Frequency EEG Variations in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder during Human Faces Visualization

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by the impairment in the social reciprocity, interaction/language, and behavior, with stereotypes and signs of sensory function deficits. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a well-established and noninvasive tool for neurophysiological characterization and monitoring of the brain electrical activity, able to identify abnormalities related to frequency range, connectivity, and lateralization of brain functions. This research aims to evidence quantitative differences in the frequency spectrum pattern between EEG signals of children with and without ASD during visualization of human faces in three different expressions: neutral, happy, and angry. Quantitative clinical evaluations, neuropsychological evaluation, and EEG of children with and without ASD were analyzed paired by age and gender. The results showed stronger activation in higher frequencies (above 30 Hz) in frontal, central, parietal, and occipital regions in the ASD group. This pattern of activation may correlate with developmental characteristics in the children with ASD.