Combined frequency-tagging EEG and eye-tracking measures provide no support for the "excess mouth/diminished eye attention" hypothesis in autism / Sofie VETTORI in Molecular Autism, 11 (2020)  

Public ISBD [article]  inMolecular Autism > 11 (2020) Titre : Combined frequency-tagging EEG and eye-tracking measures provide no support for the "excess mouth/diminished eye attention" hypothesis in autism Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Sofie VETTORI, Auteur ; Stephanie VAN DER DONCK, Auteur ; Jannes NYS, Auteur ; Pieter MOORS, Auteur ; Tim VAN WESEMAEL, Auteur ; Jean STEYAERT, Auteur ; Bruno ROSSION, Auteur ; Milena DZHELYOVA, Auteur ; Bart BOETS, Auteur Langues : Anglais (eng) Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : BACKGROUND: Scanning faces is important for social interactions. Difficulty with the social use of eye contact constitutes one of the clinical symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It has been suggested that individuals with ASD look less at the eyes and more at the mouth than typically developing (TD) individuals, possibly due to gaze aversion or gaze indifference. However, eye-tracking evidence for this hypothesis is mixed. While gaze patterns convey information about overt orienting processes, it is unclear how this is manifested at the neural level and how relative covert attention to the eyes and mouth of faces might be affected in ASD. METHODS: We used frequency-tagging EEG in combination with eye tracking, while participants watched fast flickering faces for 1-min stimulation sequences. The upper and lower halves of the faces were presented at 6 Hz and 7.5 Hz or vice versa in different stimulation sequences, allowing to objectively disentangle the neural saliency of the eyes versus mouth region of a perceived face. We tested 21 boys with ASD (8-12 years old) and 21 TD control boys, matched for age and IQ. RESULTS: Both groups looked longer at the eyes than the mouth, without any group difference in relative fixation duration to these features. TD boys looked significantly more to the nose, while the ASD boys looked more outside the face. EEG neural saliency data partly followed this pattern: neural responses to the upper or lower face half were not different between groups, but in the TD group, neural responses to the lower face halves were larger than responses to the upper part. Face exploration dynamics showed that TD individuals mostly maintained fixations within the same facial region, whereas individuals with ASD switched more often between the face parts. LIMITATIONS: Replication in large and independent samples may be needed to validate exploratory results. CONCLUSIONS: Combined eye-tracking and frequency-tagged neural responses show no support for the excess mouth/diminished eye gaze hypothesis in ASD. The more exploratory face scanning style observed in ASD might be related to their increased feature-based face processing style. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13229-020-00396-5 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=438 [article] Combined frequency-tagging EEG and eye-tracking measures provide no support for the "excess mouth/diminished eye attention" hypothesis in autism [texte imprimé] / Sofie VETTORI, Auteur ; Stephanie VAN DER DONCK, Auteur ; Jannes NYS, Auteur ; Pieter MOORS, Auteur ; Tim VAN WESEMAEL, Auteur ; Jean STEYAERT, Auteur ; Bruno ROSSION, Auteur ; Milena DZHELYOVA, Auteur ; Bart BOETS, Auteur. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Molecular Autism > 11 (2020) Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : BACKGROUND: Scanning faces is important for social interactions. Difficulty with the social use of eye contact constitutes one of the clinical symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It has been suggested that individuals with ASD look less at the eyes and more at the mouth than typically developing (TD) individuals, possibly due to gaze aversion or gaze indifference. However, eye-tracking evidence for this hypothesis is mixed. While gaze patterns convey information about overt orienting processes, it is unclear how this is manifested at the neural level and how relative covert attention to the eyes and mouth of faces might be affected in ASD. METHODS: We used frequency-tagging EEG in combination with eye tracking, while participants watched fast flickering faces for 1-min stimulation sequences. The upper and lower halves of the faces were presented at 6 Hz and 7.5 Hz or vice versa in different stimulation sequences, allowing to objectively disentangle the neural saliency of the eyes versus mouth region of a perceived face. We tested 21 boys with ASD (8-12 years old) and 21 TD control boys, matched for age and IQ. RESULTS: Both groups looked longer at the eyes than the mouth, without any group difference in relative fixation duration to these features. TD boys looked significantly more to the nose, while the ASD boys looked more outside the face. EEG neural saliency data partly followed this pattern: neural responses to the upper or lower face half were not different between groups, but in the TD group, neural responses to the lower face halves were larger than responses to the upper part. Face exploration dynamics showed that TD individuals mostly maintained fixations within the same facial region, whereas individuals with ASD switched more often between the face parts. LIMITATIONS: Replication in large and independent samples may be needed to validate exploratory results. CONCLUSIONS: Combined eye-tracking and frequency-tagged neural responses show no support for the excess mouth/diminished eye gaze hypothesis in ASD. The more exploratory face scanning style observed in ASD might be related to their increased feature-based face processing style. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13229-020-00396-5 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=438

A multilevel investigation of sensory sensitivity and responsivity in autistic adults / Laurie-Anne SAPEY-TRIOMPHE in Autism Research, 16-7 (July 2023)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 16-7 (July 2023) . - p.1299-1320 Titre : A multilevel investigation of sensory sensitivity and responsivity in autistic adults Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Laurie-Anne SAPEY-TRIOMPHE, Auteur ; Joke DIERCKX, Auteur ; Sofie VETTORI, Auteur ; Jaana VAN OVERWALLE, Auteur ; Johan WAGEMANS, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.1299-1320 Langues : Anglais (eng) Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Abstract Atypical sensory processing is a core symptom of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We aimed at better characterizing visual sensitivity and responsivity in ASD at the self-reported, behavioral and neural levels, and at describing the relationships between these levels. We refer to sensory sensitivity as the ability to detect sensory stimuli and to sensory responsivity as an affective response to sensory stimuli. Participants were 25 neurotypical and 24 autistic adults. At the self-reported level, autistic participants had higher scores of sensory sensitivity and responsivity than neurotypicals. The behavioral and neural tasks involved contrast-reversing gratings which became progressively (in)visible as their contrast or spatial frequency evolved. At the behavioral level, autistic participants had higher detection and responsivity thresholds when gratings varied in spatial frequency, but their thresholds did not differ from neurotypicals when gratings varied in contrast. At the neural level, we used fast periodic visual stimulations and electroencephalography to implicitly assess detection thresholds for contrast and spatial frequency, and did not reveal any group difference. Higher self-reported responsivity was associated with higher behavioral responsivity, more intolerance of uncertainty and anxiety, in particular in ASD. At the self-reported level, higher sensitivity was associated with more responsivity in both groups, contrary to the behavioral level where these relationships were not found. These heterogeneous results suggest that sensitivity and responsivity per se are not simply increased in ASD, but may be modulated by other factors such as environmental predictability. Multi-level approaches can shed light on the mechanisms underlying sensory issues in ASD. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2962 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=510 [article] A multilevel investigation of sensory sensitivity and responsivity in autistic adults [texte imprimé] / Laurie-Anne SAPEY-TRIOMPHE, Auteur ; Joke DIERCKX, Auteur ; Sofie VETTORI, Auteur ; Jaana VAN OVERWALLE, Auteur ; Johan WAGEMANS, Auteur . - p.1299-1320. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 16-7 (July 2023) . - p.1299-1320 Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Abstract Atypical sensory processing is a core symptom of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We aimed at better characterizing visual sensitivity and responsivity in ASD at the self-reported, behavioral and neural levels, and at describing the relationships between these levels. We refer to sensory sensitivity as the ability to detect sensory stimuli and to sensory responsivity as an affective response to sensory stimuli. Participants were 25 neurotypical and 24 autistic adults. At the self-reported level, autistic participants had higher scores of sensory sensitivity and responsivity than neurotypicals. The behavioral and neural tasks involved contrast-reversing gratings which became progressively (in)visible as their contrast or spatial frequency evolved. At the behavioral level, autistic participants had higher detection and responsivity thresholds when gratings varied in spatial frequency, but their thresholds did not differ from neurotypicals when gratings varied in contrast. At the neural level, we used fast periodic visual stimulations and electroencephalography to implicitly assess detection thresholds for contrast and spatial frequency, and did not reveal any group difference. Higher self-reported responsivity was associated with higher behavioral responsivity, more intolerance of uncertainty and anxiety, in particular in ASD. At the self-reported level, higher sensitivity was associated with more responsivity in both groups, contrary to the behavioral level where these relationships were not found. These heterogeneous results suggest that sensitivity and responsivity per se are not simply increased in ASD, but may be modulated by other factors such as environmental predictability. Multi-level approaches can shed light on the mechanisms underlying sensory issues in ASD. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2962 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=510

Rapid neural categorization of angry and fearful faces is specifically impaired in boys with autism spectrum disorder / Stephanie VAN DER DONCK in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61-9 (September 2020)  

Public ISBD [article]  inJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry > 61-9 (September 2020) . - p.1019-1029 Titre : Rapid neural categorization of angry and fearful faces is specifically impaired in boys with autism spectrum disorder Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Stephanie VAN DER DONCK, Auteur ; Milena DZHELYOVA, Auteur ; Sofie VETTORI, Auteur ; Soha Sadat MAHDI, Auteur ; Peter CLAES, Auteur ; Jean STEYAERT, Auteur ; Bart BOETS, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.1019-1029 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : Autism  electroencephalography  facial emotion processing  fast periodic visual stimulation  implicit expression detection Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : BACKGROUND: Difficulties with facial expression processing may be associated with the characteristic social impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Emotional face processing in ASD has been investigated in an abundance of behavioral and EEG studies, yielding, however, mixed and inconsistent results. METHODS: We combined fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) with EEG to assess the neural sensitivity to implicitly detect briefly presented facial expressions among a stream of neutral faces, in 23 boys with ASD and 23 matched typically developing (TD) boys. Neutral faces with different identities were presented at 6 Hz, periodically interleaved with an expressive face (angry, fearful, happy, sad in separate sequences) every fifth image (i.e., 1.2 Hz oddball frequency). These distinguishable frequency tags for neutral and expressive stimuli allowed direct and objective quantification of the expression-categorization responses, needing only four sequences of 60 s of recording per condition. RESULTS: Both groups show equal neural synchronization to the general face stimulation and similar neural responses to happy and sad faces. However, the ASD group displays significantly reduced responses to angry and fearful faces, compared to TD boys. At the individual subject level, these neural responses allow to predict membership of the ASD group with an accuracy of 87%. Whereas TD participants show a significantly lower sensitivity to sad faces than to the other expressions, ASD participants show an equally low sensitivity to all the expressions. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate an emotion-specific processing deficit, instead of a general emotion-processing problem: Boys with ASD are less sensitive than TD boys to rapidly and implicitly detect angry and fearful faces. The implicit, fast, and straightforward nature of FPVS-EEG opens new perspectives for clinical diagnosis. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13201 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=430 [article] Rapid neural categorization of angry and fearful faces is specifically impaired in boys with autism spectrum disorder [texte imprimé] / Stephanie VAN DER DONCK, Auteur ; Milena DZHELYOVA, Auteur ; Sofie VETTORI, Auteur ; Soha Sadat MAHDI, Auteur ; Peter CLAES, Auteur ; Jean STEYAERT, Auteur ; Bart BOETS, Auteur . - p.1019-1029. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry > 61-9 (September 2020) . - p.1019-1029 Mots-clés : Autism  electroencephalography  facial emotion processing  fast periodic visual stimulation  implicit expression detection Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : BACKGROUND: Difficulties with facial expression processing may be associated with the characteristic social impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Emotional face processing in ASD has been investigated in an abundance of behavioral and EEG studies, yielding, however, mixed and inconsistent results. METHODS: We combined fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) with EEG to assess the neural sensitivity to implicitly detect briefly presented facial expressions among a stream of neutral faces, in 23 boys with ASD and 23 matched typically developing (TD) boys. Neutral faces with different identities were presented at 6 Hz, periodically interleaved with an expressive face (angry, fearful, happy, sad in separate sequences) every fifth image (i.e., 1.2 Hz oddball frequency). These distinguishable frequency tags for neutral and expressive stimuli allowed direct and objective quantification of the expression-categorization responses, needing only four sequences of 60 s of recording per condition. RESULTS: Both groups show equal neural synchronization to the general face stimulation and similar neural responses to happy and sad faces. However, the ASD group displays significantly reduced responses to angry and fearful faces, compared to TD boys. At the individual subject level, these neural responses allow to predict membership of the ASD group with an accuracy of 87%. Whereas TD participants show a significantly lower sensitivity to sad faces than to the other expressions, ASD participants show an equally low sensitivity to all the expressions. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate an emotion-specific processing deficit, instead of a general emotion-processing problem: Boys with ASD are less sensitive than TD boys to rapidly and implicitly detect angry and fearful faces. The implicit, fast, and straightforward nature of FPVS-EEG opens new perspectives for clinical diagnosis. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13201 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=430

Social orienting in prematurely born preschoolers: a case control study showing altered neural tuning towards voices, not faces / Rowena VAN DEN BROECK in Molecular Autism, 16 (2025)  

Public ISBD [article]  inMolecular Autism > 16 (2025) . - 38 Titre : Social orienting in prematurely born preschoolers: a case control study showing altered neural tuning towards voices, not faces Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Rowena VAN DEN BROECK, Auteur ; Lisa GISTELINCK, Auteur ; Sofie VETTORI, Auteur ; Ward DEFERM, Auteur ; Silke VOS, Auteur ; Bieke BOLLEN, Auteur ; Gunnar NAULAERS, Auteur ; Els ORTIBUS, Auteur ; Bart BOETS, Auteur ; Rowena VAN DEN BROECK, Auteur ; Lisa GISTELINCK, Auteur ; Sofie VETTORI, Auteur ; Ward DEFERM, Auteur ; Silke VOS, Auteur ; Bieke BOLLEN, Auteur ; Gunnar NAULAERS, Auteur ; Els ORTIBUS, Auteur ; Bart BOETS, Auteur Article en page(s) : 38 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : Humans  Female  Male  Child, Preschool  Infant, Premature/physiology  Electroencephalography  Case-Control Studies  Voice  Social Behavior  Infant, Newborn  Face  Eeg  Faces  Frequency-tagging  Preschoolers  Preterm  Voices  performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the  Medical Ethical Committee of UZ/KU Leuven (S58807). Competing interests: The  authors declare no competing interests. Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : BACKGROUND: Despite advancements in neonatal care, premature infants remain at increased risk for cognitive and socio-emotional difficulties, collectively referred to as the preterm behavioral phenotype. A particular aspect of this phenotype is atypical social orienting, characterized by reduced attention towards socially relevant information, similar to what has been reported for autism spectrum disorder. METHODS: We monitored a cohort of prematurely born children from birth. At five years of age, we administered a series of frequency-tagging electroencephalography (EEG) paradigms to investigate their neural sensitivity to social cues, i.e., sensitivity for faces and voices. Frequency-tagging EEG utilizes fast periodic stimulation to elicit synchronized brain responses measurable in the frequency domain. In the preterm (N = 66) and in a matched full-term control group (N = 32), we applied two multi-input frequency-tagging EEG paradigms, simultaneously presenting streams of social and non-social stimuli, each tagged at different presentation rates. In the visual domain, we presented streams of faces and houses. In the auditory domain, we presented streams of voices and object sounds. We used linear mixed models to investigate the effects of group and stimulus type. RESULTS: All children showed an implicit social bias towards faces and voices. Compared to full-term peers, preterm preschoolers showed intact neural tuning to faces, but diminished neural tuning to voices, in particular in the speech-sensitive 3.70 Hz frequency band. LIMITATIONS: The preterm group was highly heterogeneous in terms of gestational age and consisted of healthy preterm preschoolers. Moreover, the used paradigms are artificial and may not fully capture neural tuning in naturalistic social interactions. CONCLUSIONS: The diminished neural response to voices in the preterm children may potentially reflect the effects of atypical auditory exposure and premature visual exposure in the NICU environment or altered social experiences early in life. These findings contribute to our understanding of the socio-emotional and communicative development in preterm populations and may aid in identifying children at risk for psychopathology or subclinical socio-emotional difficulties. En ligne : https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13229-025-00672-2 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=569 [article] Social orienting in prematurely born preschoolers: a case control study showing altered neural tuning towards voices, not faces [texte imprimé] / Rowena VAN DEN BROECK, Auteur ; Lisa GISTELINCK, Auteur ; Sofie VETTORI, Auteur ; Ward DEFERM, Auteur ; Silke VOS, Auteur ; Bieke BOLLEN, Auteur ; Gunnar NAULAERS, Auteur ; Els ORTIBUS, Auteur ; Bart BOETS, Auteur ; Rowena VAN DEN BROECK, Auteur ; Lisa GISTELINCK, Auteur ; Sofie VETTORI, Auteur ; Ward DEFERM, Auteur ; Silke VOS, Auteur ; Bieke BOLLEN, Auteur ; Gunnar NAULAERS, Auteur ; Els ORTIBUS, Auteur ; Bart BOETS, Auteur . - 38. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Molecular Autism > 16 (2025) . - 38 Mots-clés : Humans  Female  Male  Child, Preschool  Infant, Premature/physiology  Electroencephalography  Case-Control Studies  Voice  Social Behavior  Infant, Newborn  Face  Eeg  Faces  Frequency-tagging  Preschoolers  Preterm  Voices  performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the  Medical Ethical Committee of UZ/KU Leuven (S58807). Competing interests: The  authors declare no competing interests. Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : BACKGROUND: Despite advancements in neonatal care, premature infants remain at increased risk for cognitive and socio-emotional difficulties, collectively referred to as the preterm behavioral phenotype. A particular aspect of this phenotype is atypical social orienting, characterized by reduced attention towards socially relevant information, similar to what has been reported for autism spectrum disorder. METHODS: We monitored a cohort of prematurely born children from birth. At five years of age, we administered a series of frequency-tagging electroencephalography (EEG) paradigms to investigate their neural sensitivity to social cues, i.e., sensitivity for faces and voices. Frequency-tagging EEG utilizes fast periodic stimulation to elicit synchronized brain responses measurable in the frequency domain. In the preterm (N = 66) and in a matched full-term control group (N = 32), we applied two multi-input frequency-tagging EEG paradigms, simultaneously presenting streams of social and non-social stimuli, each tagged at different presentation rates. In the visual domain, we presented streams of faces and houses. In the auditory domain, we presented streams of voices and object sounds. We used linear mixed models to investigate the effects of group and stimulus type. RESULTS: All children showed an implicit social bias towards faces and voices. Compared to full-term peers, preterm preschoolers showed intact neural tuning to faces, but diminished neural tuning to voices, in particular in the speech-sensitive 3.70 Hz frequency band. LIMITATIONS: The preterm group was highly heterogeneous in terms of gestational age and consisted of healthy preterm preschoolers. Moreover, the used paradigms are artificial and may not fully capture neural tuning in naturalistic social interactions. CONCLUSIONS: The diminished neural response to voices in the preterm children may potentially reflect the effects of atypical auditory exposure and premature visual exposure in the NICU environment or altered social experiences early in life. These findings contribute to our understanding of the socio-emotional and communicative development in preterm populations and may aid in identifying children at risk for psychopathology or subclinical socio-emotional difficulties. En ligne : https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13229-025-00672-2 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=569

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