Electrophysiological alterations in early auditory predictive processing as potential markers for autistic symptomatology

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder that has been linked to a range of perceptual processing alterations, including hypo- and hyperresponsiveness to auditory stimulation. A recently proposed theory that attempts to account for these symptoms suggest that autistic individuals have a decreased ability to anticipate upcoming sensory stimulation. In a series of ERP experiments, we show that autistic individuals have alterations in the early processing of both highly predictable self-initiated auditory stimulation (van Laarhoven, Stekelenburg, Eussen, & Vroomen, 2019), and unexpected omissions of auditory stimulation that is predictable by visual motion (van Laarhoven, Stekelenburg, Eussen, & Vroomen, 2020). In addition, deviancy detection of auditory speech is reduced in autistic individuals, while deviancy detection of visual speech and incongruent audiovisual speech seems to be intact (van Laarhoven et al., in prep). Our findings suggest that autistic individuals may indeed experience difficulties in anticipating upcoming auditory stimulation. Importantly, these difficulties might be due to domain-specific alterations, rather than general impairments in predictive coding. This notion provides potential avenues for future research on electrophysiological markers for autistic symptomatology.