CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 57Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchLanguage Development and DisordersNeurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

ERP evidence of semantic processing in children with ASD

Open access
DiStefano, Charlotte, Senturk, Damla, Jeste, Shafali Spurling·2019·Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
DOI 10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100640PMC PMC6763343
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

25% of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain minimally verbal (MV), despite intervention. Electroencephalography can reveal neural mechanisms underlying language impairment in ASD, potentially improving our ability to predict language outcomes and target interventions. Verbal (V) and MV children with ASD, along with an age-matched typically developing (TD) group participated in a semantic congruence ERP paradigm, during which pictures were displayed followed by the expected or unexpected word. An N400 effect was evident in all groups, with a shorter latency in the TD group. A late negative component (LNC) also differentiated conditions, with a group by condition by region interaction. Post hoc analyses revealed that the LNC was present across multiple regions in the TD group, in the mid-frontal region in MVASD, and not present in the VASD group. Cluster analysis identified subgroups within the ASD participants. Two subgroups showed markedly atypical patterns of processing, one with reversed but robust differentiation of conditions, and the other with initially reversed followed by typical differentiation. Findings indicate that children with ASD, including those with minimal language, showed EEG evidence of semantic processing, but it was characterized by delayed speed of processing and limited integration with mental representations.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100640

Cites

4 of 4 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 49

  1. Akshoomoff N. Use of the mullen scales of early learning for the assessment of young children with autism spectrum disorders Child Neuropsychol. 12 2006 269 277 16911972 PMC1550495
  2. Anderson D.K. Lord C. Risi S. DiLavore P.S. Shulman C. Thurm A. Patterns of growth in verbal abilities among children with autism spectrum disorder J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 75 4 2007 594 604 17663613
  3. Bentin S. McCarthy G. Wood C.C. Event-related potentials, lexical decision and semantic priming Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol. 60 4 1985 343 355 2579801
  4. Bermeitinger C. Frings C. Wentura D. Reversing the N400: event-related potentials of a negative semantic priming effect Neuroreport 19 15 2008 1479 1482 18797301
  5. Bishop S.L. Guthrie W. Coffing M. Lord C. Convergent validity of the mullen scales of early learning and the differential ability scales in children with autism spectrum disorders Am. J. Intellect. Dev. Disabil. 116 5 2011 331 343 21905802 PMC7398154
  6. Cantiani C. Choudhury N.A. Yu Y.H. Shafer V.L. Schwartz R.G. Benasich A.A. From sensory perception to lexical-semantic processing: an ERP study in non-verbal children with autism PLoS One 11 8 2016 e0161637–31 PMC4999236 27560378
  7. Carr T.H. Dagenbach D. Semantic priming and repetition from masked words: evidence for a center-surround attentional mechanism in perceptual recognition J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 16 2 1990 341 350 2137871
  8. Chahrour M. O’Roak B.J. Santini E. Samaco R.C. Kleiman R.J. Manzini M.C. Current perspectives in autism spectrum disorder: from genes to therapy J. Neurosci. 36 45 2016 11402 11410 27911742 PMC5125207
  9. Chang C.-T. Lee C.-Y. Chou C.-J. Fuh J.-L. Wu H.-C. Predictability effect on N400 reflects the severity of reading comprehension deficits in aphasia Neuropsychologia 81(C 2016 117 128 26686551
  10. Coderre E.L. Linguistic and non-linguistic semantic processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorders: an ERP study J. Autism Dev. Disord. 47 3 2017 795 812 28083778
  11. Cohen J. Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, 1988 Connolly J.F. Mate-Kole M.C. Joyce B.M. Global Aphasia: An Innovative Assessment Approach 80 1999 Routledge Academic New York, NY 1309 1315 Arch. Phys. Med. Rehabil.
  12. Cummings A. Ceponiene R. Verbal and nonverbal semantic processing in children with developmental language impairment Neuropsychologia 48 1 2010 77 85 19698728 PMC2794944
  13. De Rubeis S. Buxbaum J.D. Recent advances in the genetics of autism spectrum disorder Curr. Neurol. Neurosci. Rep. 15 6 2015 36 25946996
  14. DiStefano C. Dickinson A. Baker E. Jeste S.S. EEG data collection in children with ASD_ the role of state in data quality and spectral power Res. Autism Spectr. Disord. 57 2018 132 144 31223334 PMC6585985
  15. Dunn M.A. Bates J.C. Developmental change in neutral processing of words by children with autism J. Autism Dev. Disord. 35 3 2005 361 376 16119477
  16. Dunn L.M. Dunn D.M. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test PsychCorp 4th Edition 2007 Bloomington MN
  17. Eapen V. Crnčec R. Walter A. Exploring links between genotypes, phenotypes, and clinical predictors of response to early intensive behavioral intervention in autism Spectrum disorder Front. Hum. Neurosci. 7 2013 567 24062668 PMC3769633
  18. Elliot C.D. Differential Ability Scales 2nd edition 2007 Harcourt Assessment San Antonio, TX
  19. Fishman I. Yam A. Bellugi U. Lincoln A. Mills D. Contrasting patterns of language-associated brain activity in autism and Williams syndrome Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 6 5 2011 630 638 20802091 PMC3190203
  20. Friederici A.D. Neurophysiological markers of early language acquisition: from syllables to sentences Trends Cogn. Sci. 9 10 2005 481 488 16139558
  21. Friederici A.D. Steinhauer K. Frisch S. Lexical integration: sequential effects of syntactic and semantic information Mem. Cogn. 27 3 1999 438 453 10355234
  22. Friedrich M. Friederici A.D. Maturing brain mechanisms and developing behavioral language skills Brain Lang. 114 2 2010 66 71 19665783
  23. Frings C. Bermeitinger C. Wentura D. Center-surround or spreading inhibition Exp. Psychol. 55 4 2008 234 242 18683620
  24. Hagoort P. How the brain solves the binding problem for language: a neurocomputational model of syntactic processing NeuroImage 20 2003 S18 S29 14597293
  25. Harris G.J. Chabris C.F. Clark J. Urban T. Aharon I. Steele S. Brain activation during semantic processing in autism spectrum disorders via functional magnetic resonance imaging Brain Cogn. 61 1 2006 54 68 16473449
  26. IBM Corp, Released 2016. IBM SPSS Statistics for Mac, Version 24. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp. Jeste S.S. Geschwind D.H. Disentangling the heterogeneity of autism spectrum disorder through genetic findings Nature (Publishing Group) 10 2 2014 74 81 PMC4125617 24468882
  27. Jeste S.S. Nelson C.A. Event related potentials in the understanding of autism spectrum disorders: an analytical review J. Autism Dev. Disord. 39 3 2009 495 510 18850262 PMC4422389
  28. Jeste S.S. Hirsch S. Vogel-Farley V. Norona A. Navalta M.-C. Gregas M.C. Atypical face processing in children with tuberous sclerosis complex J. Child Neurol. 28 12 2012 1569 1576 23143725 PMC4422391
  29. Kaganovich N. Schumaker J. Rowland C. Atypical audiovisual word processing in school-age children with a history of specific language impairment: an event-related potential study J. Neurodev. Disord. 2016 1 22 27597881 PMC5011345
  30. Kamio Y. Robins D. Kelley E. Swainson B. Fein D. Atypical lexical/semantic processing in high-functioning autism spectrum disorders without early language delay J. Autism Dev. Disord. 37 6 2006 1116 1122 17080275
  31. Kasari C. Brady N. Lord C. Tager-Flusberg H. Assessing the minimally verbal school-aged child with autism spectrum disorder Autism Res. 6 6 2013 479 493 24353165 PMC4139180
  32. Kornilov S.A. Magnuson J.S. Rakhlin N. Landi N. Grigorenko E.L. Lexical processing deficits in children with developmental language disorder: an event-related potentials study Dev. Psychopathol. 27 02 2015 459 476 25997765 PMC4606961
  33. Kutas M. Hillyard S.A. Reading senseless sentences: brain potentials reflect semantic incongruity Science (New York, N.Y.) 207 4427 1980 203 205 7350657
  34. Lord C. Rutter M. DiLavore P.C. Risi S. Gotham K. Bishop S. Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Western Psychological Services Second Edition 2012 Torrance CA
  35. Masi A. DeMayo M.M. Glozier N. Guastella A.J. An overview of autism spectrum disorder, heterogeneity and treatment options Neurosci. Bull. 33 2 2017 183 193 28213805 PMC5360849
  36. McCleery J.P. Ceponiene R. Burner K.M. Townsend J. Kinnear M. Schreibman L. Neural correlates of verbal and nonverbal semantic integration in children with autism spectrum disorders J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 51 3 2010 277 286 20025622
  37. Mullen E.M. Mullen Scales of Early Learning: AGS Edition 1995 American Guidance Service Circle Pines, MN
  38. Olvet D.M. Hajcak G. The stability of error-related brain activity with increasing trials Psychophysiology 46 5 2009 957 961 19558398
  39. Pickles A. Anderson D.K. Lord C. Heterogeneity and plasticity in the development of language: a 17-year follow-up of children referred early for possible autism J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 55 12 2014 1354 1362 24889883
  40. Pijnacker J. Geurts B. van Lambalgen M. Buitelaar J. Hagoort P. Exceptions and anomalies: an ERP study on context sensitivity in autism Neuropsychologia 48 10 2010 2940 2951 20542048
  41. Plesa Skwerer D. Jordan S.E. Brukilacchio B.H. Tager-Flusberg H. Comparing methods for assessing receptive language skills in minimally verbal children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders Autism 2015 1 14 PMC6988895 26408635
  42. Rapin I. Dunn M.A. Allen D.A. Stevens M.C. Fein D. Subtypes of language disorders in school-age children with autism Dev. Neuropsychol. 34 1 2009 66 84 19142767
  43. Ribeiro T.C. Valasek C.A. Minati L. Boggio P.S. Altered semantic integration in autism beyond language Neuroreport 24 8 2013 414 418 23629689
  44. Rohaut B. Faugeras F. Chausson N. King J.-R. Karoui El I. Cohen L. Naccache L. Probing ERP correlates of verbal semantic processing in patients with impaired consciousness Neuropsychologia 66(C 2015 279 292 25447058
  45. Silva-Pereyra J. Rivera-Gaxiola M. Kuhl P.K. An event-related brain potential study of sentence comprehension in preschoolers: semantic and morphosyntactic processing Cogn. Brain Res. 23 2–3 2005 247 258 15820632
  46. Srinivasan R. Nunez P.L. Tucker D.M. Silberstein R.B. Cadusch P.J. Spatial sampling and filtering of EEG with spline laplacians to estimate cortical potentials Brain Topogr. 8 4 1996 355 366 8813415
  47. Stahmer A.C. Schreibman L. Cunningham A.B. Toward a technology of treatment individualization for young children with autism spectrum disorders Brain Res. 1380 2011 229 239 20858466 PMC4028162
  48. Tager-Flusberg H. A psychological approach to understanding the social and language impairments in autism Int. Rev Psychiatry 11 4 1999 325 334 16467907 PMC1350917
  49. Wentura D. Frings C. Repeated masked category primes interfere with related exemplars: new evidence for negative semantic priming J. Exp. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 31 1 2005 108 120 15641909

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
DiStefano, C., Senturk, D., & Jeste, S. S.
Affiliations
University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Corresponding author
DiStefano, Charlotte
ORCID
Venue
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-04
Volume
36
Pages
100640
ISSN
1878-9293 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100640
PMC
PMC6763343
OpenAlex
W2928916812
Cited by
57
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 2
FWCI
3.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Autism Speaks Meixner Postdoctoral Fellowship in Translational Research
  • National Institutes of Health Autism Center of Excellence (2P50HD055784-08)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM111378-01A1)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, semantic processing, N400, language impairment, EEG, children, processing speed
MeSH terms
Autism Spectrum Disorder, Child, Electroencephalography, Female, Humans, Male, Semantics

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review