Limited research has investigated the development of auditory ERPs in young children, and particularly how stimulus intensity may affect these auditory ERPs. Previous research has also yielded inconsistent findings regarding differences in the development of auditory ERPs in autism and typical development. Furthermore, stimulus intensity may be of particular interest in autism insofar as autistic people may have atypical experiences of sound intensity (e.g., hyperacusis). Therefore, the present study examined associations between age and ERPs evoked by tones of differing intensities (50, 60, 70, and 80 dB SPL) in a large sample of young children (2–5 years) with and without an autism diagnosis. Correlations between age and P1 latencies were examined, while cluster-based permutation testing was used to examine associations between age and neural response amplitudes, as well as group differences in amplitude, over all electrode sites in the longer time window of 1–350 ms. Older autistic participants had faster P1 latencies, but these effects only attained significance over the right hemisphere in response to soft 50 dB sounds. Autistic participants had slower P1 responses to 80 dB sounds over the right hemisphere. Over the scalp regions associated with the later N2 response, more negative response amplitudes (that is, larger N2 responses) were observed in typically-developing than autistic participants. Furthermore, continuous associations between response amplitudes and age suggested that older typically-developing participants exhibited stronger N2 responses to all intensities, though this effect may have at least in part reflected the absence of small positive voltage deflections in the N2 latency window. Age was associated with amplitudes of responses to 50 dB through 70 dB sounds in autism, but in contrast to Typical Development (TD), little evidence of relationships between age and amplitudes in the N2 latency window was found in autism in the 80 dB condition. Although caution should be exercised in interpretation due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, these findings suggest that developmental changes in auditory responses may differ across diagnostic groups in a manner that depends on perceived loudness and/or stimulus intensity.

有限的研究调查了幼儿听觉 ERP 的发展，特别是刺激强度如何影响这些听觉 ERP。先前的研究对于自闭症和典型发育中听觉 ERP 发展的差异也得出了不一致的发现。此外，刺激强度可能对自闭症特别感兴趣，因为自闭症患者可能有非典型的声音强度体验（例如，听觉过敏）。因此，本研究在大量患有或未患有自闭症诊断的幼儿（2-5岁）样本中检查了不同强度（50、60、70和80 dB SPL）音调诱发的年龄与ERP之间的关联。研究了年龄和 P1 潜伏期之间的相关性，同时使用基于簇的排列测试来检查年龄和神经反应幅度之间的关联，以及 1-350 ms 较长时间窗口内所有电极位点的幅度组差异。年龄较大的自闭症参与者的 P1 潜伏期更快，但这些影响仅在右半球响应 50 dB 的柔和声音时才显着。自闭症参与者的右半球对 80 dB 声音的 P1 反应较慢。在与较晚的 N2 反应相关的头​​皮区域，与自闭症参与者相比，在典型发育中观察到更多的负反应幅度（即更大的 N2 反应）。此外，反应幅度和年龄之间的连续关联表明，年龄较大的典型发育参与者对所有强度都表现出更强的 N2 反应，尽管这种效应可能至少部分反映了 N2 潜伏期窗口中不存在小的正电压偏转。 自闭症患者的年龄与对 50 dB 至 70 dB 声音的反应幅度相关，但与典型发育 (TD) 相比，在 80 dB 条件下的自闭症患者中，几乎没有发现年龄与 N2 潜伏期窗口幅度之间关系的证据。尽管由于本研究的横断面性质，在解释时应谨慎，但这些发现表明，听觉反应的发育变化可能因诊断组的不同而有所不同，具体取决于感知的响度和/或刺激强度。