A specific pattern in brain activity is linked to communication difficulties in autistic children and teenagers, according to new research from the University of Virginia.
The study, led by UVA neuroscientist Kevin Pelphrey and UVA Data Scientist Jack Van Horn, alongside collaborators at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, the University of Washington, Yale, and UCLA, examined 306 participants ages 7 to 18 — 162 autistic and 144 typically developing. Each wore a 128-sensor EEG cap while listening to nonsense speech sounds.
Rather than studying traditional brainwave rhythms, the researchers focused on what’s known as the “aperiodic” signal in brain activity — a measure that reflects the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neural activity. Autistic participants showed noisier aperiodic signals, and that noise correlated with lower scores on everyday verbal communication — but not with vocabulary or grammar skills, suggesting the signal tracks something distinct from language knowledge itself.
The researchers caution that the measure is not a diagnostic test, but say it may eventually help clarify why communication challenges vary so widely among autistic individuals.
Journal: Scientific Reports
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-59415-9
Source: EurekAlert