Light-Adapted Electroretinogram Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Paul A Constable; Edward R Ritvo; Ariella R Ritvo; Irene O Lee; Morgan L McNair; Dylan Stahl; Jane Sowden; Stephen Quinn; David H Skuse; Dorothy A Thompson; James C McPartland

doi:10.1007/s10803-020-04396-5

Light-Adapted Electroretinogram Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder

J Autism Dev Disord. 2020 Aug;50(8):2874-2885. doi: 10.1007/s10803-020-04396-5.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Caring Futures Institute, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia. Paul.Constable@flinders.edu.au.
² Professor Emeritus, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁴ Behavioural and Brain Sciences Unit, Population Policy and Practice Programme, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, New York, NY, USA.
⁶ School of Medicine, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA.
⁷ NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK.
⁸ Department of Statistics, Data Science and Epidemiology, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
⁹ The Tony Kriss Visual Electrophysiology Unit, Clinical and Academic Department of Ophthalmology, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust, London, UK.
¹⁰ UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK.

PMID: 32034650
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-020-04396-5

Abstract

Light-adapted (LA) electroretinograms (ERGs) from 90 individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), mean age (13.0 ± 4.2), were compared to 87 control subjects, mean age (13.8 ± 4.8). LA-ERGs were produced by a random series of nine different Troland based, full-field flash strengths and the ISCEV standard flash at 2/s on a 30 cd m^-2 white background. A random effects mixed model analysis showed the ASD group had smaller b- and a-wave amplitudes at high flash strengths (p < .001) and slower b-wave peak times (p < .001). Photopic hill models showed the peaks of the component Gaussian (p = .035) and logistic functions (p = .014) differed significantly between groups. Retinal neurophysiology assessed by LA-ERG provides insight into neural development in ASD.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Electroretinogram; b-wave.

Publication types

Multicenter Study

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Autism Spectrum Disorder / physiopathology*
Case-Control Studies
Electroretinography / methods*
Female
Humans
Models, Biological
Photic Stimulation
Retina / physiology*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding