Early Behavioral Intervention Is Associated With Normalized Brain Activity in Young Children With Autism

By Geraldine Dawson, Edward G. Jones, K. Merkle, K. Venema, R. Lowy, S. Faja, Dana Kamara, Michael Murias, J. Greenson, Jamie Winter and 3 more. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2012

662 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Objective A previously published randomized clinical trial indicated that a developmental behavioral intervention, the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), resulted in gains in IQ, language, and adaptive behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder. This report describes a secondary outcome measurement from this trial, EEG activity. Method Forty-eight 18- to 30-month-old children with autism spectrum disorder were randomized to receive the ESDM or referral to community intervention for 2 years. After the intervention (age 48 to 77 months), EEG activity (event-related potentials and spectral power) was measured during the presentation of faces versus objects. Age-matched typical children were also assessed. Results The ESDM group exhibited greater improvements in autism symptoms, IQ, language, and adaptive and social behaviors than the community intervention group. The ESDM group and typical children showed a shorter Nc latency and increased cortical activation (decreased α power and increased θ power) when viewing faces, whereas the community intervention group showed the opposite pattern (shorter latency event-related potential [ERP] and greater cortical activation when viewing objects). Greater cortical activation while viewing faces was associated with improved social behavior. Conclusions This was the first trial to demonstrate that early behavioral intervention is associated with normalized patterns of brain activity, which is associated with improvements in social behavior, in young children with autism spectrum disorder.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2bb14e0d5d1e3cb31863b274e9ec0844fdb65ad7

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. A. Kaiser
2. Geraldine Dawson
3. Sally J. Rogers
4. Brooke Ingersoll
5. Aubyn C. Stahmer
6. Connie Kasari
7. R. Landa
8. A. Wetherby

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

1. Brooke Ingersoll
2. Geraldine Dawson
3. Aubyn C. Stahmer
4. Connie Kasari
5. R. Landa
6. Sally J. Rogers
7. A. Wetherby
8. Erin K. McNerney

In Psychiatry and Mental health

1. Geraldine Dawson
2. Brooke Ingersoll
3. Sally J. Rogers
4. A. Wetherby
5. A. Kaiser

Citations in the corpus

• Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions: Empirically Validated Treatments for Autism Spectrum Disorder (2015, background): “…training (PRT; Koegel and Koegel 2006; Koegel et al. 1989; Schreibman and Koegel 2005), the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM; Dawson et al. 2010; Dawson et al. 2012; Rogers and Dawson 2010; Rogers et al. 2012), enhanced milieu teaching (EMT; Kaiser and Hester 1994), reciprocal imitation…”