Linking Auditory Brainstem Neural Stability to Parent-Reported Autistic Traits in School-Age Children.

Overview

1. Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Syracuse University, 621 Skytop Rd. Suite 1200, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA
2. Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, 430 Huntington Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA; (E.C.); (E.M.); (N.R.)

Abstract

Highlights: What are the main findings?

Parents’ endorsement of autistic traits is related to the neural stability of auditory brainstem responses in school-aged children.

This association exists regardless of whether the auditory brainstem response is evoked by speech or non-speech stimuli.

What are the implications of the main findings?

Unstable auditory processing is associated with greater parent-reported autistic traits.

These findings suggest that neural stability of speech and non-speech evoked auditory brainstem responses may reflect individual differences related to autistic traits, although further research is needed to determine the clinical and mechanistic significance of this relationship.

Abstract: Background: Neural stability, defined as trial-by-trial fluctuations in neural responses to the repetitive sensory input, is an indicator of neural processing stability. The auditory brainstem response (ABR) can provide an electrophysiological measure of neural stability. Findings on neural stability differences between autistic and neurotypical individuals are inconsistent, potentially due to methodological differences and sample heterogeneity. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between neural stability in the brainstem and autistic traits in a group of children with and without a diagnosis of autism. We examined whether the degree of neural stability differs based on the evoking stimulus and response component analyzed, and whether neural stability relates to parent-reported autistic traits, as measured by the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and social responsiveness scale-2 (SRS-2). Methods: In total, 41 participants had usable click ABRs and 34 had usable sABRs. Neural stability was quantified using Pearson correlation analyses between binaurally evoked subaverage ABR waveforms. Parent-reported measures of autistic traits were collected. Results: Neural stability differed across ABR components, with the click ABR being significantly more stable than sABR components. Decreased neural stability is significantly related to autistic traits measured by the AQ but not the SRS-2. There was no significant response component by AQ interaction. Conclusions: Neural stability in the auditory brainstem pathway is linked to individual differences in autistic traits measured by the AQ but not the SRS, implying that early sensory processing neural stability may be related to broader features of autistic traits rather than social communication alone.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data, not to its authors' code: see the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none, so it has no map.

Data

Datasets cited

• osf:r5cax, at OSF; found in “Data Availability Statement”

Data Availability Statement

The data presented in this study are openly available at https://osf.io/r5cax (accessed on 11 May 2026).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 2, 28 September 2026

• Funding: added Syracuse University

Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 5 authors, 4 keywords, 50 references.

Cite

This paper

Major, D. P., Cary, E., Matsuba, E., Russo, N., & Prieve, B. (2026). Linking Auditory Brainstem Neural Stability to Parent-Reported Autistic Traits in School-Age Children. Brain sciences, 16(5), 535. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16050535

Similar papers

The papers with a page that share the most with this one: the tools found in their code, their categories, datasets, cited references and authors, the rarest counting most.

[1] doi:10.7554/elife.109901

Infants at high and low likelihood for autism show different EEG developmental trajectories in speech tracking and statistical learning.

Journal: eLife

In common: autism, 4 references

[2] doi:10.1038/s42003-026-10094-2 [code]

E/I imbalance and internal noise cause weak neural representations and face recognition challenges in ASD.

Journal: Communications biology

In common: autism, 4 references

[3] doi:10.1126/sciadv.aec9291 [code]

Computational mechanisms of perception in autism revealed using games inspired by rodent operant tasks.

Journal: Science advances

In common: autism, 3 references

[4] doi:

The Cortical Contribution to the Speech‐Frequency–Following Response Is Not Modulated by Visual Information

Journal: The European journal of neuroscience

In common: 3 references

[5] doi:10.3758/s13414-026-03306-8

What contributes to our perception of the Shepard Tabletop Illusion?

Journal: Attention, perception & psychophysics

In common: autism, 2 references

[6] doi:10.1111/ejn.70490

Analysis of Task Demand Effects on Visual and Auditory Mismatch Negativity (MMN) Across Autistic and Schizotypal Traits.

Journal: The European journal of neuroscience

In common: autism, 2 references

[7] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1205

Dissecting medial temporal lobe from diencephalic sub-volumes: The amnesia dichotomy revisited.

Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

In common: 3 references

[8] doi:10.1038/s41598-026-51854-8 [code]

Sound-evoked auditory neurophysiological signals are a window into prodromal functional differences in a preclinical model of Alzheimer's disease.

Journal: Scientific reports

In common: 2 references

[9] doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2026.117852 [code]

Graph theory identifies altered prefrontal microcircuit organization in Shank3 mice, a mouse Model of autism.

Journal: Cell reports

In common: autism, 2 references

[10] doi:10.1002/dneu.70019 [code]

A Longitudinal Study of Children's Hippocampal Development: Investigating Maternal Physical Activity, Depression, and Education.

Journal: Developmental neurobiology

In common: 3 references

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.