Although prior studies have compared sensory event-related potential (ERP) responses between groups of autistic and typically-developing participants, it is unclear how heterogeneity contributes to the results of these studies. The present study used examined individual differences in these responses. 130 autistic children and 81 typically-developing children, aged between 2 and 5 years, listened to tones at four identity levels while 61-channel electroencephalography was recorded. Hierarchical clustering was used to group participants based on rescaled ERP topographies between 51 and 350 ms. The hierarchical clustering analysis revealed substantial heterogeneity. Some of the seven clusters defined in this analysis were characterized by prolonged fronto-central positivities and/or weak or absent N2 negativities. However, many other participants fell into clusters in which N2 responses were present at varying latencies. Atypical response morphologies such as absent N2 responses and/or prolonged positive-going responses found in some autistic participants may account for prior research findings of attenuated N2 amplitudes in autism. However, there was also considerable overlap between groups, with participants of both groups appearing in all clusters. These results emphasize the utility of using clustering to explore individual differences in brain responses, which can expand on and clarify the results of analyses of group mean differences.

尽管之前的研究比较了自闭症组和典型发育组参与者之间的感觉事件相关电位（ERP）反应，但尚不清楚异质性如何影响这些研究的结果。本研究检查了这些反应的个体差异。 130 名自闭症儿童和 81 名年龄在 2 岁至 5 岁之间的正常发育儿童听了四个身份级别的音调，同时记录了 61 通道脑电图。根据 51 到 350 毫秒之间重新调整的 ERP 拓扑，使用层次聚类对参与者进行分组。层次聚类分析揭示了显着的异质性。本分析中定义的七个簇中的一些簇的特征是额中央正性延长和/或 N2 负性较弱或缺失。然而，许多其他参与者属于 N2 反应以不同潜伏期出现的集群。在一些自闭症参与者中发现的非典型反应形态，例如缺乏 N2 反应和/或长时间的积极反应，可能是先前关于自闭症患者 N2 振幅减弱的研究结果的原因。然而，各组之间也存在相当大的重叠，两个组的参与者都出现在所有集群中。这些结果强调了使用聚类来探索大脑反应的个体差异的效用，这可以扩展和澄清群体平均差异的分析结果。