Coding of stimulus parameters in autistic, retarded, and normal children: evidence for a two-factor theory of autism

Barry, Robert J.; James, Angela L.

doi:10.1016/0167-8760(88)90045-1

Cited by 42 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Previous SCR studies of autistic children have shown that they do not show the normal rate of habituation in the magnitude of their SCRs to the same stimulus over time (Van Engeland 1984;Barry & James 1988). Palkovitz & Wiesenfeld (1980) failed to ¢nd di¡erences in electrodermal responses to auditory stimuli, although they noted that the autistic group had a higher baseline (see below) electrodermal level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Because of the fact that hyporesponsive type B children tend to balance out hyper-responsive type A children, depending on the ratios of the two in their experimental group, a study will either ¢nd hyper-responsiveness, hyporesponsiveness or, more probably, neither. Even if a study is restricted to type A children they may not show chronically hyperactive sympathetic activity (see, for example, Hutt & Hutt 1965;Barry & James 1988) because of the tremendous capacity the children have for reducing autonomic activity via repetitive and/or somesthetic activity. Instead, it may be truer to say that the type A child has either hyperactive or hypoactive sympathetic activity, depending on what the child is doing.…”

Section: (A) Experiments 1:`look At Me'mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Autonomic responses of autistic children to people and objects

Hirstein

Iversen²,

Ramachandran

2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

256

203

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Several recent lines of inquiry have pointed to the amygdala as a potential lesion site in autism. Because one function of the amygdala may be to produce autonomic arousal at the sight of a signi¢cant face, we compared the responses of autistic children to their mothers' face and to a plain paper cup. Unlike normals, the autistic children as a whole did not show a larger response to the person than to the cup. We also monitored sympathetic activity in autistic children as they engaged in a wide range of everyday behaviours. The children tended to use self-stimulation activities in order to calm hyper-responsive activity of the sympathetic (`¢ght or £ight') branch of the autonomic nervous system. A small percentage of our autistic subjects had hyporesponsive sympathetic activity, with essentially no electrodermal responses except to self-injurious behaviour. We sketch a hypothesis about autism according to which autistic children use overt behaviour in order to control a malfunctioning autonomic nervous system and suggest that they have learned to avoid using certain processing areas in the temporal lobes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: (A) Experiments 1:`look At Me'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomic responses of autistic children to people and objects

Hirstein

Iversen²,

Ramachandran

2001

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

256

203

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…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.…”

mentioning

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.…”

mentioning

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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Psychophysiological Associations with Gastrointestinal Symptomatology in Autism Spectrum Disorder

et al. 2016

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often accompanied by gastrointestinal disturbances, which also may impact behavior. Alterations in autonomic nervous system functioning are also frequently observed in ASD. The relationship between these findings in ASD is not known. We examined the relationship between gastrointestinal symptomatology, examining upper and lower gastrointestinal tract symptomatology separately, and autonomic nervous system functioning, as assessed by heart rate variability and skin conductance level, in a sample of 120 individuals with ASD. Relationships with co-occurring medical and psychiatric symptoms were also examined. While the number of participants with significant upper gastrointestinal tract problems was small in this sample, 42.5% of participants met criteria for functional constipation, a disorder of the lower gastrointestinal tract. Heart rate variability, a measure of parasympathetic modulation of cardiac activity, was found to be positively associated with lower gastrointestinal tract symptomatology at baseline. This relationship was particularly strong for participants with co-occurring diagnoses of anxiety disorder and for those with a history of regressive ASD or loss of previously acquired skills. These findings suggest that autonomic function and gastrointestinal problems are intertwined in children with ASD; although it is not possible to assess causality in this data set. Future work should examine the impact of treatment of gastrointestinal problems on autonomic function and anxiety, as well as the impact of anxiety treatment on gastrointestinal problems. Clinicians should be aware that gastrointestinal problems, anxiety, and autonomic dysfunction may cluster in children with ASD and should be addressed in a multidisciplinary treatment plan.

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Coding of stimulus parameters in autistic, retarded, and normal children: evidence for a two-factor theory of autism

Cited by 42 publications

References 16 publications

Autonomic responses of autistic children to people and objects

Autonomic responses of autistic children to people and objects

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

Psychophysiological Associations with Gastrointestinal Symptomatology in Autism Spectrum Disorder

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