Lay Abstract
Autism spectrum disorders are reported to affect nearly one out of every one hundred children, with over 90% of these children showing behavioral disturbances related to the processing of basic sensory information. Behavioral sensitivity to light touch, such as profound discomfort with clothing tags and physical contact, is a ubiquitous finding in children on the autism spectrum. In this study, we investigate the strength and timing of brain activity in response to simple, light taps to the fingertip. Our results suggest that children with autism show a diminished early response in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1). This finding is most evident in the left hemisphere. In exploratory analysis, we also show that tactile sensory behavior, as measured by the Sensory Profile, may be a better predictor of the intensity and timing of brain activity related to touch than a clinical autism diagnosis. We report that children with atypical tactile behavior have significantly lower amplitude somatosensory cortical responses in both hemispheres. Thus sensory behavioral phenotype appears to be a more powerful strategy for investigating neural activity in this cohort. This study provides evidence for atypical brain activity during sensory processing in autistic children and suggests that our sensory behavior based methodology may be an important approach to investigating brain activity in people with autism and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Scientific Abstract
The neural underpinnings of sensory processing differences in autism remain poorly understood. This prospective magnetoencephalography (MEG) study investigates whether children with autism show atypical cortical activity in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in comparison to matched controls. Tactile stimuli were clearly detectable, painless taps applied to the distal phalanx of the second (D2) and third (D3) fingers of the right and left hands. Three tactile paradigms were administered: an oddball paradigm (standard taps to D3 at an inter-stimulus interval (ISI) of 0.33 and deviant taps to D2 with ISI ranging from 1.32–1.64s); a slow-rate paradigm (D2) with an ISI matching the deviant taps in the oddball paradigm; and a fast-rate paradigm (D2) with an ISI matching the standard taps in the oddball. Study subjects were boys (age 7–11 years) with and without autism disorder. Sensory behavior was quantified using the Sensory Profile questionnaire. Boys with autism exhibited smaller amplitude left hemisphere S1 response to slow and deviant stimuli during the right hand paradigms. In post-hoc analysis, tactile behavior directly correlated with the amplitude of cortical response. Consequently, the children were re-categorized by degree of parent-report tactile sensitivity. This regrouping created a more robust distinction between the groups with amplitude diminution in the left and right hemispheres and latency prolongation in the right hemisphere in the deviant and slow-rate paradigms for the affected children. This study suggests that children with aut...
Objective
Given reports of high pain thresholds and reduced auditory response in individuals with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (AgCC), this study investigated whether affected participants report atypical experiences and behaviors on a well-established sensory processing measure.
Methods
Fourteen participants with AgCC (ages 11-59) completed the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (Brown & Dunn, 2001). Sensory profile scales were classified as “Atypical” if they were more than one standard deviation from the mean.
Results
Fifty-seven percent of participants with AgCC reported reduced sensory registration as compared to an expected 16% of the normative sample. Similarly, 50% of the AgCC participants reported atypically increased auditory processing difficulties.
Conclusions
Using a well-established sensory processing questionnaire, participants with AgCC reported measurable differences in multiple aspects of sensory processing. The most notable difference was in the quadrant of low sensory registration, suggesting that individuals with AgCC may require sensory information to be presented more slowly or at a higher intensity for adequate processing. The sensory modality that was most affected was the auditory system, which is consistent with increased rates of language disorders and Autism Spectrum Disorders in this population. Understanding sensory processing in individuals with AgCC can both elucidate the role of inter-hemispheric transfer in the development of intact sensory processing as well as contribute to our knowledge of the role of the corpus callosum in a range of disorders in which sensory processes are impacted.
Hydrocephalus in the fetus results in enlarging ventricular rupture, loss of the septum pellucidum leaflets, volume reduction of brain parenchyma including corpus callosum, and risk for Chiari I anomaly. Given advances in fetal surgery and imaging in the last 3 decades, there may be cause to revisit the idea of in utero cerebral spinal fluid diversion as a means to potentially ameliorate progressive loss of the developing brain.
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