Uniqueness of action monitoring in children with autism spectrum disorder: Response types and temporal aspects

Background: Action monitoring, the process for evaluating the appropriateness of one’s own actions, is reported to be atypical in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Method: We examined the characteristics of action monitoring in 11 children with ASD and 12 children with typical development (TD), analyzing stimulus-locked and response-locked event-related potential components (i.e., N2; error-related negativity, ERN; and error positivity, Pe) related to execution of a flanker task. Results: We found a smaller N2 amplitude in children with ASD than in those with TD. Children with ASD also had a larger amplitude of ERN for partial error responses (electromyographic activity corresponding to the inappropriate hand side before response execution) than did children with TD. Additionally, the ERN amplitude for the partial error response was correlated with the Autistic Mannerisms of the Social Responsiveness Scale. There were no significant differences in Pe amplitudes between children with ASD and those with TD. Conclusion: The results suggest that action monitoring in children with ASD is significantly different both before and after response execution. We hypothesized that the detail-focused processing style of ASD reduces the demands of action monitoring before response execution; however, autistic mannerisms evoke excessive concern regarding trivial mistakes after response execution.