Journal of Clinical Developmental Biology

Abstract

Background: Autism or Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a mental developmental disorder, manifested in the early childhood. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an another psychiatric disorder of the neurodevelopmental type. There are evidences that the both disorders affect the information processes in the nervous system altering the mechanism, how the neurons and their synapses are connected and organized. It is not yet clear the etiology and the physiological mechanisms of ASD and ADHD.                                                                      

Purpose: To examine if quantitative EEG (QEEG) assessment is sensitive and simple enough to differentiate children with ASD from ADHD and neurotypic children.

Material and methods: QEEG is a type of electrophysiological assessment that applies computerized mathematical analysis to convert the raw waveform data into different frequency ranges. Each frequency range is averaged across a sample of data and quantified into mean amplitude (voltage in microvolts mV).