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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Champagne Terrace/Bordeaux (Novotel London West)
10:30 AM
Background: Atypical behavioral responses to sensory and object stimuli are seen in autism in infancy and discriminate those with autism from other clinical groups. Controlled psychophysiological studies of such responses are infrequently reported, have produced conflicting findings, and have not been conducted on very young children.
Objectives: To compare psychophysiological responses to sensory, object, and social stimuli of young children with autism and typical age matched peers.
Methods: Two groups of young children matched for age (40.4), ASD (45) and Typical (22) participated. Parents completed the Short Sensory Profile and Repetitive Behavior Scale. Electrodermal and electrocardiogram signals were recorded on 96% of the sample. Stimuli involved five trials of a loud auditory stimulus, a live display of happy, pain, and fear displays, and a live exposure to approach and physical contact of a familiar and unfamiliar person. EDR was coded for peak response amplitude after presentation of auditory and emotional displays. Vagal tone was analyzed for the first two-minute period of interaction with the non-familiar and familiar person.
Results: Parents of children with ASD reported more abnormal responses to sensory stimuli and repetitive behavior than did the TYP group. Psychophysiologically, there were no group mean differences between the two groups of children in any condition. Significant differences in variance between the groups were found on only two variables: during the first presentation of the auditory probe (p=.05) and the happy emotional display (p=.01) the ASD group showed greater variability. Parental behavior reports showed no relationships with physiological data.
Conclusions: The data do not support hypotheses concerning physiological hyper- or hypo-reactivity to either social or environmental stimuli in these young children. This pilot study needs replication; the method was successful in gathering such data in very young children. The field needs new hypotheses concerning the origins of sensory and repetitive behaviors in autism.
Objectives: To compare psychophysiological responses to sensory, object, and social stimuli of young children with autism and typical age matched peers.
Methods: Two groups of young children matched for age (40.4), ASD (45) and Typical (22) participated. Parents completed the Short Sensory Profile and Repetitive Behavior Scale. Electrodermal and electrocardiogram signals were recorded on 96% of the sample. Stimuli involved five trials of a loud auditory stimulus, a live display of happy, pain, and fear displays, and a live exposure to approach and physical contact of a familiar and unfamiliar person. EDR was coded for peak response amplitude after presentation of auditory and emotional displays. Vagal tone was analyzed for the first two-minute period of interaction with the non-familiar and familiar person.
Results: Parents of children with ASD reported more abnormal responses to sensory stimuli and repetitive behavior than did the TYP group. Psychophysiologically, there were no group mean differences between the two groups of children in any condition. Significant differences in variance between the groups were found on only two variables: during the first presentation of the auditory probe (p=.05) and the happy emotional display (p=.01) the ASD group showed greater variability. Parental behavior reports showed no relationships with physiological data.
Conclusions: The data do not support hypotheses concerning physiological hyper- or hypo-reactivity to either social or environmental stimuli in these young children. This pilot study needs replication; the method was successful in gathering such data in very young children. The field needs new hypotheses concerning the origins of sensory and repetitive behaviors in autism.