Meta-analysis of sensorimotor gating in patients with autism spectrum disorders. (April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cheng, Chia-Hsiung; Chan, Pei-Ying S.; Hsu, Shih-Chieh; Liu, Chia-Yih
• Is Part Of: Psychiatry research. Volume 262(2018)
• Page Start: 413
• Page End: 419
• Publication Date: 2018-04
• Subjects: Startle response -- Inhibitory function -- Prepulse inhibition (PPI) -- Sensorimotor gating -- Asperger's syndrome; Psychiatry -- Periodicals; Psychiatry -- periodicals; Psychiatrie -- Périodiques; 616.89
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.09.016
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0165-1781

Abstract

Abstract: Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle response is a well-established neurophysiological marker of sensorimotor gating ability in psychiatric patients including those with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). PPI has been utilized as an indicator of the central inhibitory function and is potentially linked to the clinical features of this disease. However, it remains inconclusive whether ASD patients exhibit PPI deficits compared with healthy controls. The present meta-analysis aimed to explore the pooled effect sizes of PPI in ASD patients. We searched major electronic databases from 1990 to January 2017. Seven studies, consisting of 21 individual investigations with 135 healthy controls and 99 ASD patients, were obtained. The effect size, calculated as Hedges's g and 95% confidence interval, were estimated. Overall, we found ASD patients exhibited an impaired PPI compared with healthy controls (p = 0.008). Specifically, significant PPI deficits were observed among ASD children/adolescents, compared with their healthy counterparts (p = 0.019). However, differences in PPI responses were not observed among adults. Conclusively, our results reconciled the previous studies and showed that ASD children/adolescents, but not adults, exhibit reduced sensorimotor gating function compared to healthy controls. We also suggest that the parameters of PPI are particularly important and the results should be interpreted with cautions. Highlights: PPI is a psychophysiological indicator for translational research in psychiatry. PPI deficits could be interpreted as an inhibitory failure. It remained unclear whether patients with ASD exhibited a deficit in PPI function. We performed a meta-analysis of PPI studies on ASD to examine the mean effect size. ASD exhibited an impaired PPI, particularly in the children/adolescent population.