Spindle activity in young children with autism, developmental delay, or typical development.

Objective: To determine whether spindle activity differs in young children with and without autism.

Methods: We investigated differences in spindle density, duration, and oscillatory features in 135 young children with autism, developmental delay without autism (DD), or typical development (TD) and secondarily assessed the dimensional relationship between spindle density and both cognitive ability and social functioning.

Results: Compared to TD, both spindle density (Cohen 0.93, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.49-1.37) and duration (Cohen 0.58, 95% CI 0.15-1.01) were significantly decreased in autism. Spindle density was also significantly reduced in autism compared to DD (Cohen 0.61, 95% CI 0.13-1.09). Decreased spindle frequency in autism compared to both TD (Cohen 0.47, 95% CI 0.04-0.90) and DD (Cohen 0.58, 95% CI 0.10-1.06) did not survive correction. The DD group did not differ significantly from the TD group on any spindle parameter. These results, suggesting a relationship between spindle density and autism but not DD, were further illustrated in exploratory analyses, wherein nonverbal ratio IQ (RIQ) and the Vineland Socialization domain standard score were strongly correlated with spindle density in the full sample ( = 0.33, ≤ 001 and = 0.41, ≤ 001, respectively) but not within group. After nonverbal RIQ was accounted for, the relationship between spindle density and Vineland Socialization remained statistically significant ( = 0.23, < 0.01). However, Vineland Socialization scores accounted for the relationship between spindle density and nonverbal RIQ ( = 0.04, = 0.67).

Conclusion: In a large cohort of young children with autism, spindle density was reduced compared to groups of age-matched children with DD or TD. Alterations in the maturational trajectory of spindles may provide valuable insight into the neurophysiologic differences related to behavior in disorders of neurodevelopment.