Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a disorder of synchronization with the environment

ASD is characterized by rigid routines and atypical social behaviors. To find neural correlates to this rigidity, we test if cortical activity in ASD indicates altered tracking and anticipation, through measuring temporal alignment between the neuro-oscillations and periodic stimuli. We show that autistic children present altered synchronization of neuro-oscillations with regular stimuli (Beker et al., 2021b). In another study, when faced with uncertain rhythms, frequency spectra of the EEG from autistic adults indicate hyper-accuracy of the neuronal activity (Beker et al., in submission). Driven by these findings, we aim to test if dysregulation of phasic activity in ASD appears in other physiological systems outside the brain. Despite altered autonomic activity in ASD, little is known about the temporal dynamics of body signals with external events, or how it affects autistic behavior. My current and future work aims to test the brain-body-environment triad in ASD, in physical and social environments, under the hypothesis that physiological mechanisms of both the central and peripheral nervous systems do not properly synchronize with events in the environment, thereby disrupting the individual’s ability to engage with the external world flexibility and effectively. We conduct in-lab experiments and remote smartphone application to test these questions. Given our recent study that shows that EEG and behavioral readouts from ASD remain stable over long time (Beker et al., 2021a), outcomes of this research could eventually serve as biomarkers for care management and treatment approaches.