Time-Frequency Analysis of Unimodal Sensory Processing In Autism Spectrum Disorder

This work summarizes the results of a time-frequency analysis of sensory processing in young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder via continuous wavelet transform. The sensory tasks consisted of two blocks of unimodal sensory stimuli of the same type (i.e., auditory-auditory or visual-visual). A total of 12 autistic and 15 neurotypical subjects, all between 18-30 years, were analyzed. The 60 electrodes were grouped into 14 regions of interest to identify time-locked elicited brain activity. The power within three selected time-frequency windows for each block was compared between groups, showing significant differences in the first window of the second block of the visual-visual task, with the neurotypicals displaying higher power, suggesting an augmented brain activity in visual processing.