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Structured cited links
Svenja Espenhahn, Kate J. Godfrey, Sakshi Kaur, Maia Ross, Carly McMorris, Filomeno Cortese, Charlene Wright, Kara Murias, et al. (2020). Tactile Cortical Responses and Association with Tactile Sensitivity in Young Children on the Autism Spectrum. Springer Science and Business Media LLC.
Abstract
Abstract Background: Unusual responses to sensory stimuli are frequently reported in individuals on the autism spectrum (AS). Despite the early emergence of sensory features (Methods: Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate tactile cortical processing in young children aged 3-6 years with autism and in neurotypical (NT) children. Scalp EEG was recorded from 33 children with autism, including those with low cognitive and/or verbal abilities, and 45 age- and sex-matched NT children during passive tactile fingertip stimulation. We compared properties of early and later somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs) and their adaptation with repetitive stimulation between autistic and NT children and assessed whether these neural measures are linked to “real-world” parent-reported behavioral tactile sensitivity. Results: As expected, we found elevated behavioral tactile sensitivity in children on the autism spectrum. Our findings indicated no differences in amplitude or latency of early and mid-latency somatosensory-evoked potentials (P50, N80, P100), nor adaptation between autistic and NT children. However, latency of later processing of tactile information (N140) differed between young children with and without autism, suggesting faster processing speed in young autistic children. Further, correlational analyses and exploratory analyses using tactile phenotype as a grouping variable found that enhanced early neural responses were associated with greater behavioral tactile sensitivity in autism. Limitations: The relatively small sample size and the inclusion of a broad range of autistic children (e.g., with low cognitive and/or verbal abilities) may have limited our power to detect subtle group differences and associations. Hence, replications are needed to verify these results. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that electrophysiological somatosensory cortex processing measures may be indices of “real-world” tactile sensitivity in early childhood autism. Together, these findings advance our understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying tactile sensitivity in early childhood autism and, in the clinical context, may have therapeutic implications.
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