Pupil-linked arousal response reveals aberrant attention regulation among children with autism spectrum disorder

Zhao, S; Liu, Y; Wei, K

Journal article

Pupil-linked arousal response reveals aberrant attention regulation among children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract:: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that is characterized by difficulties with social interaction and interpersonal communication. It has been argued that abnormal attentional function to exogenous stimuli precedes and contributes to the core ASD symptoms. Notably, the locus ceruleus (LC) and its noradrenergic projections throughout the brain modulate attentional function, but the extent to which this locus ceruleus–norepinephrine (LC–NE) system influences attention in individuals with ASD, who frequently exhibit dysregulated alerting and attention orienting, is unknown. We examined dynamic attention control in girls and boys with ASD at rest using the pupil dilation response (PDR) as a noninvasive measure of LC–NE activity. When gender- and age-matched neurotypical participants were passively exposed to an auditory stream, their PDR decreased for recurrent stimuli but remained sensitive to surprising deviant stimuli. In contrast, children with ASD showed less habituation to recurrent stimuli as well as a diminished phasic response to deviants, particularly those containing social information. Their tonic habituation impairment predicts their phasic orienting impairment, and both impairments correlated with the severity of ASD symptom. Because of the fact that these pupil-linked responses are observed when individuals passively listen without any task engagement, our findings imply that the intricate and dynamic attention allocation mechanism, mediated by the subcortical LC–NE system, is impaired in ASD.

Publication status:: Published

Peer review status:: Peer reviewed

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APA Style

Zhao, S., Liu, Y., & Wei, K. (2022). Pupil-linked arousal response reveals aberrant attention regulation among children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Neuroscience, 42(27), 5427–5437.

MLA Style

Zhao, S., et al. “Pupil-Linked Arousal Response Reveals Aberrant Attention Regulation among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 42, no. 27, Society for Neuroscience, 2022, pp. 5427–37.

Chicago Style

Zhao, S, Y Liu, and K Wei. 2022. “Pupil-Linked Arousal Response Reveals Aberrant Attention Regulation among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Journal of Neuroscience 42 (27): 5427–37.
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