Altered gamma oscillations during motor control in children with autism spectrum disorder

Autism is hypothesized to result in a cortical excitatory and inhibitory imbalance driven by inhibitory interneuron dysfunction, which is
associated with the generation of gamma oscillations. On the other hand, impaired motor control has been widely reported in autism.
However, no study has focused on the gamma oscillations during motor control in autism. In the present study, we investigated the
motor-related gamma oscillations in autism using magnetoencephalography. Magnetoencephalographic signals were recorded from 14
right-handed human children with autism (5 female), aged 5–7 years, and age- and IQ-matched 15 typically developing children during
a motor task using their right index finger. Consistent with previous studies, the autism group showed a significantly longer button
response time and reduced amplitude of motor-evoked magnetic fields. We observed that the autism group exhibited a low peak
frequency of motor-related gamma oscillations from the contralateral primary motor cortex, and these were associated with the severity
of autism symptoms. The autism group showed a reduced power of motor-related gamma oscillations in the bilateral primary motor
cortex. A linear discriminant analysis using the button response time and gamma oscillations showed a high classification performance
(86.2% accuracy). The alterations of the gamma oscillations in autism might reflect the cortical excitatory and inhibitory imbalance. Our
findings provide an important clue into the behavioral and neurophysiological alterations in autism and a potential biomarker for autism.