EEG functional connectivity as a prognostic biomarker of adaptive function in autistic people

Many autistic people have challenges with adaptive function, impacting education, employment and independent-living goals. Adaptive function outcomes of autistic people vary considerably, which makes planning for future independence or support needs challenging. Here, using a developmentally sensitive approach, we investigated if quantifying cortical functional connectivity – a neurobiological feature that differs in autism – could predict longitudinal changes in adaptive function in autistic people.

Using electroencephalography (EEG) in 150 autistic and 159 non-autistic participants (aged 6-31 years), we investigated if the extent of cortico-cortical functional connectivity (mean degree) and small-world network organisation (small-world index) could predict longitudinal changes in adaptive function over an interval of 19-months (SD = 3.5 months). We assessed predictive performance for both continuous and binary changes in adaptive function abilities. We explicitly studied age-effects, given differing neurodevelopmental trajectories in autistic compared to non-autistic people. We quantified the extent to which these functional connectivity metrics had properties desired in prognostic biomarkers: high reliability and convergence with underlying biology (polygenic variation).

Small-world index significantly predicted longitudinal changes in adaptive function in autistic people across the entire age-range. Predictive performance was best in 15-21-year-olds, where small-world index and mean degree explained 30% and 33% of additional variance in adaptive function outcomes, respectively. In this age-group, functional connectivity metrics outperformed measures of intelligence and autistic features in predictive ability. In categorising binary (increasing versus not-increasing) outcomes in autistic people, the model containing mean degree had an AUC of 0.80 [95% CI: 0.63-0.97] in 15-21-year-olds, while the model containing small-world index had an AUC of 0.76 [95% CI: 0.63-0.89] across the 6-31-year age-range. Both metrics demonstrated high test-retest reliability and were significantly associated with polygenic variation in brain volume in autistic people.

We demonstrate the first evidence that EEG-derived functional connectivity metrics significantly predict adaptive function outcomes in autistic people and may be developed as prognostic biomarkers. Considering developmental stage may reconcile heterogeneous findings in previous autism connectivity literature.