Can EEG Correlates Predict Treatment Efficacy in Children with Overlapping ASD and SLI Symptoms: A Case Report

Slavica Maksimović; Ljiljana Jeličić; Maša Marisavljević; Saška Fatić; Aleksandar Gavrilović; Miško Subotić

doi:10.3390/diagnostics12051110

Can EEG Correlates Predict Treatment Efficacy in Children with Overlapping ASD and SLI Symptoms: A Case Report

Diagnostics (Basel). 2022 Apr 28;12(5):1110. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics12051110.

Authors

Slavica Maksimović^{1

2}, Ljiljana Jeličić^{1

2}, Maša Marisavljević^{1

2}, Saška Fatić^{1

2}, Aleksandar Gavrilović^{3

4}, Miško Subotić¹

Affiliations

¹ Cognitive Neuroscience Department, Research and Development Institute "Life Activities Advancement Center", 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
² Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Institute for Experimental Phonetics and Speech Pathology, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
³ Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia.
⁴ Department of Neurophysiology, Clinic of Neurology, University Clinical Centre of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia.

Abstract

Evaluation of the rehabilitation efficacy may be an essential indicator of its further implementation and planning. The research aim is to examine whether the estimation of EEG correlates of auditory-verbal processing in a child with overlapping autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) symptoms may be a predictor of the treatment efficacy in conditions when behavioral tests do not show improvement during the time course. The prospective case report reports follow-up results in a child aged 36 to 66 months. During continuous integrative therapy, autism risk index, cognitive, speech-language, sensory, and EEG correlates of auditory-verbal information processing are recorded in six test periods, and their mutual interrelation was analyzed. The obtained results show a high statistically significant correlation of all observed functions with EEG correlates related to the difference between the average mean values of theta rhythm in the left (F1, F3, F7) and right (F2, F4, F8) frontal region. The temporal dynamics of the examined processes point to the consistency of the evaluated functions increasing with time flow. These findings indicate that EEG correlates of auditory-verbal processing may be used to diagnose treatment efficacy in children with overlapping ASD and SLI.

Keywords: ASD; EEG correlates; SLI; auditory-verbal processing; integrative therapy; treatment efficacy.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

This work was partially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Techno-logical Development of the Republic of Serbia within the project “Influence of psychophysiological, sociological, and cultural factors on speech and language in the child population”. This project is realized in cooperation with the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Serbia.