| Title: |
Locus coeruleus tonic upregulation increases selectivity to inconspicuous auditory information in autistic compared to non-autistic individuals: a combined pupillometry and electroencephalography study |
| Authors: |
Bast, Nico; Ahmad, Jumana; Mason, Luke; Jones, Emily J. H.; Matyjek, Magdalena; Polzer, Leonie; Luckhardt, Christina; Müller, Anna Katharina; McAlonan, Grainne M.; Banaschewski, Tobias; Baumeister, Sarah; Loth, Eva; Freitag, Christine M.; The EU-AIMS LEAP group consists of |
| Publisher Information: |
Zenodo |
| Publication Year: |
2025 |
| Collection: |
Zenodo |
| Subject Terms: |
Pupillometry; Autism spectrum condition; Mismatch negativity; Arousal; Predictive coding; Auditory oddball paradigm |
| Description: |
Background: Sensory processing requires selectivity to salient sensory input. Many autistic individuals report different sensory processing, which has been associated with altered sensory selectivity. The locus-coeruleus norepinephrine (LC-NE) system modulates the neuronal gain of sensory input, which represents a neurophysiological mechanism of sensory selectivity. In autistic individuals, we hypothesized that LC-NE tonic upregulation reduces sensory selectivity and underlies different sensory processing. Methods: Autistic (n = 139) and non-autistic (n = 98) individuals were assessed during a passive auditory oddball task with pupillometry and electroencephalography. For every trial, a baseline pupil size (BPS) assessed LC-NE tonic activity that coincides with current arousal, while a stimulus-evoked pupillary response (SEPR) assessed LC-NE phasic activity that estimated sensory selectivity. Electroencephalography assessed amplitudes of mismatch negativity (MMN-amp) that estimated pre-attentive change detection as a brain-activity readout of sensory selectivity. Measures were modeled between groups within the task by combining Frequentist and Bayesian approaches. Results: Across groups, higher BPS was associated with more negative MMN-amp to standards and oddballs. A more negative MMN-amp to standards was associated with a higher SEPR to standards. Controlling for these associations, autistic versus non-autistic individuals showed a higher SEPR in response to standards. In addition, a positive association of BPS and SEPR to standards was specific to autistic individuals. With task progression, autistic versus non-autistic individuals showed a higher initial increase and subsequently steeper decrease of BPS. This was supported by Bayesian posterior distribution estimates. Limitations: A short trial duration required concatenating trials to epochs and applying a linear-time invariant filter to capture the slow pupil changes. Without an LC-NE manipulation, we cannot rule out that pupil changes are evoked by other ... |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| Language: |
unknown |
| Relation: |
https://zenodo.org/records/16938542; oai:zenodo.org:16938542 |
| DOI: |
10.1186/s13229-025-00678-w |
| Availability: |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-025-00678-w; https://zenodo.org/records/16938542 |
| Rights: |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International ; cc-by-4.0 ; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.1FBEDF5A |
| Database: |
BASE |