Ashleigh Saunders
New Zealand
Research Article
Autism Spectrum Disorder and Co-Existing Conditions: A Lexical Decision ERP Study
Author(s): Ashleigh Saunders, Ian J Kirk and Karen E WaldieAshleigh Saunders, Ian J Kirk and Karen E Waldie
The current study sought to clarify the nature of lexical decision-making information processing, using a lexical decision paradigm during EEG, in 4 groups: pure-ASD; pure-ADHD; pure-anxiety; and neurotypical controls. We also aimed to understand whether there were differences between groups when ASD presents as a comorbid condition (ASD + ADHD). The P100 and the N170 components of the evoked potential (ERPs) were the focus of analyses. Overall, we found larger P100 amplitudes in the right (relative to the left) hemisphere in neurotypical controls. This early ERP component likely reflects pre-linguistic processing (e.g., the sorting of nouns into categories) at a stage before the language-dominant left hemisphere takes over. We also found that those with pure-ADHD had longer P100 latencies than both the pure-anxiety and pure-ASD groups towards all lexical stimuli. The pure-ADHD group .. View More»
