Comparing stress and arousal systems in response to different social contexts in children with ASD

Abstract

Response to psychological stress can vary based on the extent to which the context is perceived as stressful, especially under different social conditions. The purpose of this preliminary study was to compare physiological stress (cortisol) and regulation (respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA) of 10–12 year old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n=31) or typical development (TD, n=25) when exposed to two social stress protocols. The extent to which perceived emotion (affect recognition) and anxiety (state and trait) mediate the stress response was also explored. Results revealed different patterns of stress responses dependent on the type of stressor. During a friendly social interaction, both groups generally showed an adaptive, synergistic response between cortisol and RSA. In response to social evaluation, however, the ASD group did not show correlating responses between physiological systems, which was likely due to a blunted stress response to the social evaluative stressor. The ability to recognize neutral faces mediated the relationship between diagnostic group and physiological response to social evaluation, indicating that perception of threat is essential to triggering a stress response. The current study emphasizes the need to consider the important role of social context, social perception, and perceived anxiety when examining social interaction and stress.

Evidence for decreased parasympathetic response to a novel peer interaction in older children with autism spectrum disorder: a case-control study

“…While youth with ASD reported more anxiety following the interaction, self-reported state anxiety did not predict any of the physiological responses to the task. These findings are consistent with other recent work investigating perceived anxiety to social interaction [ 55 ]. It is important to note that the lack of an association between physiological arousal and perceived anxiety suggests distinct systems .…”

“…The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children ( STAIC ) [ 51 ] is a self-report measure of anxiety, completed by participants, in which an individual describes how he/she is currently feeling (state) and how he/she usually feels (trait). Previous studies have found youth with ASD are able to identify anxiety following stressors [ 52 – 54 ], including reporting elevated state anxiety following a social interaction [ 55 ].…”

Salivary cortisol and alpha‐amylase daily profiles and stress responses to an academic performance test and a moral cognition task in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

“…At this point, we have to underline that a critical contextual difference between the two tasks was that in the case of the APT children were aware of the fact that it was a performance evaluation task, whereas regarding the MCT children were reassured for the contrary. We assume that this difference is involved in the significant increase of sAA levels in ADHD and ASD children during the APT but not during the MCT (Corbett, Muscatello, & Baldinger, 2018).…”

Análisis mediante Bio-Feedback, Adaptación Escolar y Intervención Neuroeducativa de un Caso de Autismo Grave

“…Estos desajustes en los niveles de ansiedad dependiendo de la variable ir o no ir a casa sugieren dificultades graves de adaptación al centro. Además, J presenta diversos factores etiológicos además de los ambientales en la aparición de las emociones negativas, como son el desequilibrio hormonal, las alteraciones cerebrales y gastro-intestinales que coinciden con lo descrito en la literatura científica (Condy, Scarpa, & Friedman, 2017; Corbett, Muscatello, & Baldinger, 2019;Ding, Taur, & Walkup, 2017;Hollander et al, 2016;Martínez-González, Piqueras, & Pineda, 2016;Troyb et al, 2016).…”

“…El primer factor tiene relación con las dificultades de comunicación de las personas con TEA y su relación con la ansiedad. Autores sugiere que hay una disfunción en el sistema nervioso autónomo (SNA) de las personas con TEA y como consecuencia aparecen las conductas repetitivas (Condy, Scarpa, & Friedman, 2017;Corbett, Muscatello, & Baldinger, 2019). Además, en esta disfunción en el SNA interviene la rigidez cognitiva, que es la que determina la severidad de la conducta repetitiva, en concreto la conducta de similitud.…”