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In order to understand better the psychophysiological basis of auditory processing abnormalities in autism, we decided to study two automatic components of the auditory event-related potentials (ERPs): the mismatch negativity (MMN)—a component of the ERP which is recorded when, during repetitive auditory stimulation, rare changes are introduced—and the novelty-related P3a which is recorded as a response to unexpected novel events occurring in a sequence of repetitive stimuli.

Ten male subjects, mean age 12.3 years (SD 4.95), affected by autism and mental retardation were admitted to this study. All patients were also mentally retarded. Ten normal male subjects, mean age 12.2 years (SD 3.94), were used as controls. Auditory evoked potentials were recorded from 19 scalp electrodes (10–20 system), and stimuli were presented in sequences consisting of 2000 tones (70dB, ISI =800 ms …