Increased subcortical neural responses to repeating auditory stimulation in children with autism spectrum disorder
Open accessAbstract
Recent research has highlighted atypical reactivity to sensory stimulation as a core symptom in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, little is known about the dysfunctional neurological mechanisms underlying these aberrant sensitivities. Here we tested the hypothesis that the ability to filter out auditory repeated information is deficient in children with ASD already from subcortical levels, yielding to auditory sensitivities. We recorded the frequency-following response (FFR), a non-invasive measure of the neural tracking of the periodic characteristics of a sound in the subcortical auditory system, to compare repetition-related effects in children with ASD and typically developing children. Results revealed an increase of the FFR with stimulus repetition in children with ASD compared to their peers. Moreover, such defective early sensory encoding of stimulus redundancy was associated with sensory overload. These results highlight that auditory sensitivities in ASD emerge already at the level of the subcortical auditory system.
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Multiple studies report reduced repetition suppression in ASD for other types of stimuli, including human and non-human sound, tactile stimuli, and dot patterns during an implicit prototype learning task.
“Multiple studies report reduced repetition suppression in ASD for other types of stimuli, including human and non-human sound (Font-Alaminos et al., 2020; Kolesnik et al., 2019; Millin et al., 2018; Ruiz-Martínez et al., 2020), tactile stimuli (Piccardi et al., 2021), and dot patterns during an implicit prototype learning task (Schipul & Just, 2016).”
From Are prediction error modifications domain specific in autism but domain general in ADHD? (2025) · cites this paper as Font-Alaminos et al., 2020
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“Multiple studies report reduced repetition suppression in ASD for other types of stimuli, including human and non-human sound ( Font-Alaminos et al., 2020; Kolesnik et al., 2019; Millin et al., 2018; Ruiz-Mart í nez et al., 2020), tactile stimuli ( Piccardi et al., 2021), and dot patterns during an…”
- Authors
- Font-Alaminos, M., Cornella, M., Costa-Faidella, J., Hervás, A., Leung, S., Rueda, I., & Escera, C.
- Affiliations
- Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
- Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona (ES)
- Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Escera, Carles
- Venue
- Biological Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-01
- Volume
- 149
- Pages
- 107807
- ISSN
- 0301-0511 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2987571481
- Cited by
- 47
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 2.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- Biological Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Dipòsit Digital de la Universitat de Barcelona (Universitat de Barcelona) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Generalitat de Catalunya
- Fundación Alicia Koplowitz
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, frequency-following response, sensory overload, auditory sensitivity, sensory processing, stimulus redundancy, children
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Acoustic Stimulation, Auditory Perception, Cerebral Cortex, Child, Female, Humans, Male, Sound
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