Responses to unannounced rule changes in adults with developmental disabilities: A community-based pilot study with consumer-grade EEG

Abstract

Unannounced changes in rules or environments often precede challenging behavior and limit community participation for adults with developmental disabilities, yet their responses to change have rarely been quantified directly. We recruited adults with developmental disabilities, including those with intellectual disability, at a community day-service center. We administered a probabilistic reversal learning task and recorded resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) via a 14-channel wireless EEG system. Among the 12 adults who performed the task, total errors were comparable across participants (range 31-57), whereas a switch bias index, contrasting perseverative errors (persisting with the previously correct option) with regressive errors (failing to maintain the newly correct option), ranged from -0.96 to +0.91. In the 9 participants included in resting-state EEG analyses, a flatter aperiodic spectrum over the frontal cluster (preregistered, but selected as the focus post hoc) was associated with fewer switches after negative feedback ({rho} = .80) and more perseverative errors ({rho} = -.72). The preregistered parieto-occipital cluster showed the same direction ({rho} = .69, 95% confidence interval [-.11, .97], n = 8), which was opposite to the preregistered prediction. Frontal alpha peak amplitude was associated with accuracy ({rho} = .77), and the between-run reliability of resting-state measures was .82-.99. These findings provide preliminary evidence that EEG recorded in community settings can capture individual differences in how people respond to change. Field measurement that includes people with intellectual disability may help extend the evidence base for the Sustainable Development Goals of good health and well-being (SDG 3) and reduced inequalities (SDG 10).