Cardiovascular and electrodermal responses to simple stimuli in autistic, retarded and normal children

James, Angela L.; Barry, Robert J.

doi:10.1016/0167-8760(84)90037-0

Cited by 32 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The children in the high general arousal subgroup had higher mean amplitude in skin conductance responses than normally developing children. In the studies by James (1988, see also James &Barry, 1984), the mean SCR to auditory stimuli was found to be higher in the group of children with autism than in the group of normally developing children. On the other hand, other studies have found no difference in responsiveness to auditory stimuli between children with autism and normally developing children (Palkovitz & Wiesenfeld, 1980;Stevens & Gruzelier, 1984) nor between children with autism and mentally retarded children (Stevens & Gruzelier, 1984).…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Kyllia¨inen and Hietanen responses to sensory stimuli in children with autism have been mostly studied using auditory stimuli (van Engeland, 1984;Palkovitz & Wiesenfeld, 1980;Stevens & Gruzelier, 1984) and more rarely using both auditory and visual stimuli (Barry & James 1988;van Engeland, Roelofts, Verbaten, & Slangen, 1991;James & Barry, 1984). Studies with auditory stimuli have produced somewhat conflicting results.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The mental age of the children had no effect on these results. In studies using visual stimuli (simple geometric figures), there has been some evidence showing that high functioning children with autism are hyporesponsive , whereas mildly or moderately retarded children with autism are hyperresponsive to visual stimuli as compared to normally developing children (Barry & James 1988;James & Barry, 1984). Only a few electrodermal studies have used socially meaningful stimuli.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In fact, the children were asked to ignore the tones they were hearing (van Engeland, 1984;Palkovitz & Wiesenfeld, 1980;Stevens & Gruzelier, 1984). In the studies using visual stimuli, children were usually asked to pay attention to the stimuli by either just encouraging to maintain their attention on the screen (Barry & James 1988;Blair, 1999;Hirstein et al, 2001;James & Barry, 1984), by asking to fixate on the target stimulus, or by requiring the children to count the number of a certain type of stimuli .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Skin Conductance Responses to Another Person’s Gaze in Children with Autism

Kylliäinen

Hietanen

2006

J Autism Dev Disord

200

155

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The effects of another person's gaze on physiological arousal were investigated by measuring skin conductance responses (SCR). Twelve able children with autism and 12 control children were shown face stimuli with straight gaze (eye contact) or averted gaze on a computer monitor. In children with autism, the responses to straight gaze were stronger than responses to averted gaze, whereas there was no difference in the responses to these gaze conditions in normally developing children. Thus, these results showed that eye gaze elicited differential pattern of SCR in normally developing children and in children with autism. It is possible that the enhanced arousal to eye contact may contribute to the abnormal gaze behaviour frequently reported in the context of autism.

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confidence: 93%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Skin Conductance Responses to Another Person’s Gaze in Children with Autism

Kylliäinen

Hietanen

2006

J Autism Dev Disord

200

155

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“…Some researchers reported SCR data indicating that children with ASD demonstrated overresponsiveness to auditory stimuli (Barry & James, 1988;James & Barry, 1984;Palkovitz & Wiesenfeld, 1980), whereas SCR data from others indicated that children with ASD were underresponsive or nonresponsive to auditory stimuli (Stevens & Gruzelier, 1984;van Engeland, 1984). Researchers using the Sensory Challenge Protocol (SCP; Miller et al, 2001) found that some children with ASD demonstrated overresponsiveness, indicated by unusually high SCR magnitudes following presentation of a variety of sensory stimuli, including auditory, whereas others demonstrated underresponsiveness, reflected in low SCR magnitudes (Schoen, Miller, Brett-Green, & Hepburn, 2008).…”

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confidence: 99%

Autonomic and Behavioral Responses of Children With Autism to Auditory Stimuli

Chang

Parham

Blanche

et al. 2012

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy

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OBJECTIVES. We examined whether children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) differ in autonomic activity at rest and in response to auditory stimuli and whether behavioral problems related to sounds in everyday life are associated with autonomic responses to auditory stimuli.METHOD. We measured skin conductance (SC) at rest and in response to auditory stimuli as well as behavioral responses using the Sensory Processing Measure (SPM) Home Form. Participants were 25 children with ASD and 25 typically developing (TD) children, aged 5-12 yr.RESULTS. The ASD group had significantly higher resting SC and stronger SC reactivity to tones than the TD group. Correlations between SC and SPM indicated that more severe auditory behavioral difficulties were associated with higher sympathetic activation at rest and stronger sympathetic reactivity to sound. CONCLUSION.High sympathetic reactivity to sound may underlie the difficult behavioral responses to sound that children with ASD often demonstrate.

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Physiological Responses to Social and Nonsocial Stimuli in Neurotypical Adults With High and Low Levels of Autistic Traits: Implications for Understanding Nonsocial Drive in Autism Spectrum Disorders

2014

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Researchers have suggested that the two primary cognitive features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a drive toward nonsocial processing and a reduced drive toward social processing, may be unrelated to each other in the neurotypical (NT) population and may therefore require separate explanations. Drive toward types of processing may be related to physiological arousal to categories of stimuli, such as social (e.g., faces) or nonsocial (e.g., trains). This study investigated how autistic traits in an NT population might relate to differences in physiological responses to nonsocial compared with social stimuli. NT participants were recruited to examine these differences in those with high vs. low degrees of ASD traits. Forty-six participants (21 male, 25 female) completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) to measure ASD traits before viewing a series of 24 images while skin conductance response (SCR) was recorded. Images included six nonsocial, six social, six face-like cartoons, and six nonsocial (relating to participants' personal interests). Analysis revealed that those with a higher AQ had significantly greater SCR arousal to nonsocial stimuli than those with a low AQ, and the higher the AQ, the greater the difference between SCR arousal to nonsocial and social stimuli. This is the first study to identify the relationship between AQ and physiological response to nonsocial stimuli, and a relationship between physiological response to both social and nonsocial stimuli, suggesting that physiological response may underlie the atypical drive toward nonsocial processing seen in ASD, and that at the physiological level at least the social and nonsocial in ASD may be related to one another.

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Cardiovascular and electrodermal responses to simple stimuli in autistic, retarded and normal children

Cited by 32 publications

References 47 publications

Skin Conductance Responses to Another Person’s Gaze in Children with Autism

Skin Conductance Responses to Another Person’s Gaze in Children with Autism

Autonomic and Behavioral Responses of Children With Autism to Auditory Stimuli

Physiological Responses to Social and Nonsocial Stimuli in Neurotypical Adults With High and Low Levels of Autistic Traits: Implications for Understanding Nonsocial Drive in Autism Spectrum Disorders

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