Abstract
It is estimated that nearly 90% of children on the autism spectrum exhibit sensory atypicalities. What aspects of sensory processing are affected in autism? Although sensory processing can be studied along multiple dimensions, two of the most basic ones involve examining instantaneous sensory responses and how the responses change over time. These correspond to the dimensions of ‘sensitivity’ and ‘habituation’. Results thus far have indicated that autistic individuals do not differ systematically from controls in sensory acuity/sensitivity. However, data from studies of habituation have been equivocal. We have studied habituation in autism using two measures: galvanic skin response (GSR) and magneto-encephalography (MEG). We report data from two independent studies. The first study, was conducted with 13 autistic and 13 age-matched neurotypical young adults and used GSR to assess response to an extended metronomic sequence. The second study involved 24 participants (12 with an ASD diagnosis), different from those in study 1, spanning the pre-adolescent to young adult age range, and used MEG. Both studies reveal consistent patterns of reduced habituation in autistic participants. These results suggest that autism, through mechanisms that are yet to be elucidated, compromises a fundamental aspect of sensory processing, at least in the auditory domain. We discuss the implications for understanding sensory hypersensitivities, a hallmark phenotypic feature of autism, recently proposed theoretical accounts, and potential relevance for early detection of risk for autism.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by INSPIRE Faculty Scheme, DST, Govt. of India to Tapan K. Gandhi, the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT and by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative to Pawan Sinha. We have benefited greatly from discussions with Drs. Marlene Behrmann, Stephen Camarata, Ami Klin, and Leonard Rappaport, and also comments from several parents of autistic children. We also wish to thank Molly Jabeck and James Borders of the MGH Institute of Health Professions.
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TG carried out GSR and MEG data collection, conducted data analysis, participated in the design of the research, and contributed to drafting and revisions of the manuscript. KT and TG carried out MEG data collection, conducted data analysis, participated in the design of the research, and contributed to drafting and revisions of the manuscript. NS helped with participant enrollment in India, clinical characterization and data collection. AC helped with subject recruitment and clinical characterization of participants in the United States, carried out MEG and GSR data collection, and contributed to the manuscript. DP participated in MEG data collection and data analysis. WJ participated in data analysis and manuscript writing. MK participated in the design of the research, carried out data collection, undertook clinical characterization and helped draft the manuscript. PS conceptualized the study, participated in the design of the research, analyzed data, and drafted the manuscript. All authors edited and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Gandhi, T.K., Tsourides, K., Singhal, N. et al. Autonomic and Electrophysiological Evidence for Reduced Auditory Habituation in Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 2218–2228 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04636-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04636-8