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RASD-290; No. of Pages 13
Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders xxx (2010) xxx–xxx

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Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Journal homepage: http://ees.elsevier.com/RASD/default.asp

Abnormalities in the anterior cingulate cortex associated with attentional and inhibitory control deficits: A neurophysiological study on children withautism spectrum disorders
Agnes S. Chan a,b,*, Yvonne M.Y. Han a, Winnie Wing-man Leung a, Connie Leung c, Virginia C.N. Wong c, Mei-chun Cheung d
a

Neuropsychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Integrative Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Center, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Department ofPaediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Duchess of Kent Children’s Hospital at Sandy Bay, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China d Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
b c

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history: Received 19 February 2010 Received in revised form 9 March 2010 Accepted 12 April 2010 Keywords: Anteriorcingulate Attention Inhibitory control EEG Autism Children

Previous studies showed that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is activated when individuals engage in attention and inhibitory control tasks. The present study examined whether ACC activity is associated with behavioral performance of the two tasks. Twenty normal and 20 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) were subjectedto neuropsychological assessments on attention and inhibitory control, as well as electroencephalography recording. Children with ASD performed significantly worse than normal children on attention tasks as shown in their poorer performance on the Digit Span test, the greater number of Omission Errors on both the Continuous Performance Test II and the Go/No-Go tasks. They also performedsignificantly worse than normal children on inhibitory control tasks as shown by the greater number of False Alarms on the Object Recognition and Hong Kong List Learning Test. Their ACC activities, as indicated by relative theta power, were found to be significantly lower than those of normal controls during performance of the Go/No-Go task. Depressed ACC activities were further found to be significantlyassociated with poorer performance in attention and inhibition. Clinical implications on the use of theta activities in the ACC as an indicator to monitor intervention progress in children with ASD were discussed. ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Attention and inhibitory processes are important components in executive functions (Denckla, 1996; Lezak, Howieson, & Loring, 2004;Stuss, Binns, Murphy, & Alexander, 2002) that are essential for effective daily living, and are also among the most well-researched constructs in cognitive science. Attention is the ability to mindfully and consciously process stimuli (Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997), and includes alerting, orienting, and sustaining attention (Posner & DiGirolamo, 1998), as well as attentionshifting (Courchesne et al., 1994; Hughes & Russell, 1993; Landry & Bryson, 2004). Inhibitory control refers to the suppressing of responses to irrelevant, non-target, or distracting stimuli (Enticott, Ogloff, & Bradshaw, 2006; Friedman & Miyake, 2004; Nigg, 2000). It puts a high demand on coordination including preparing for

* Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, The ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China. Tel.: +852 2609 6654; fax: +852 2603 5019. E-mail address: aschan@psy.cuhk.edu.hk (A.S. Chan). 1750-9467/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2010.04.007

Please cite this article in press as: Chan, A. S, et al. Abnormalities in the anterior cingulate cortex associated with attentional and...