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Sensory theory in autism makes sense: A brief review of the past and present research
Abstract
Primacy: Early in development. ‘Sensory symptoms’ can be detected in early development – much earlier than social and communication impairments – if we know what to look for and overcome the traditional ‘hypersensitivity/defensiveness approach’. For example, ‘seeming deafness’ or ‘fascination with sensory stimuli’ is ‘visible’ at the age of 9–12 months[59] or even earlier. There is research evidence that does indicate that sensory perceptual differences may be among the first signs of autism in young children. However, these early signs, especially those occurring in the first year of life, are often missed and become apparent only retrospectively[4].These autistic ‘sensory symptoms’ observed during the first years seem to persist into the second year of life[60]. Autistic toddlers and preschool children display atypical sensorimotor behaviours (including both heightened sensitivities or reduced responsiveness across sensory modalities, and motility disturbances such as stereotypies) at some point of their development[61]. Numerous individual differences, indicating possible subtypes based on different patterns of sensory perceptual problems have been reported.
... Evoquées en tant que bizarreries de réactions aux stimuli sensorielles, dès les premières descriptions des enfants autistes de Kanner et Asperger (Kanner, 1943 ;Asperger, 1944), les particularités de perception et du traitement de l'information sensorielle sont très fréquentes chez les personnes avec un trouble du spectre de l'autisme (Kern et al, 2007 ;Bogdashina 2013 ;Stanciu & Delvenne, 2016). Baranek, 2006). ...
... La théorie de la sous-connectivité(Just et al, 2012) propose l'idée que le cerveau des personnes atteintes de troubles du spectre de l'autisme serait marqué par un dérèglement de la connectivité, notamment moins de connexions entre les aires frontales et les aires corticales, ce qui mettrait en difficulté les personnes autistes lors des tâches complexes, tandis que la théorie du 'monde intense'(Markram, 2010) argumente que dans certains microcircuits neuronaux, il y aurait un hyper-fonctionnement avec une plasticité plus importante dans cette zone. Ce phénomène serait observé surtout au niveau du néo-cortex et de l'amygdale et pourrait produire un effet de traitement excessif des informations, avec pour conséquence une perception exacerbée, donc un vécu de hypersensibilité(Bogdashina, 2013). ...
Les recherches précédentes et les observations cliniques suggèrent une prévalence élevée des troubles du spectre de l'autisme (TSA) dans la population d'enfants déficients visuels. Un phénomène de régression ou de stagnation développemental dès la deuxième année de vie des bébés déficients visuels semble être un précurseur de troubles autistiques ultérieurs. Relativement peu de recherches ont examiné les manifestations comportementaux des très jeunes enfants déficients visuels avant et autour de l'apparition de cette période de régression. Pour cette étude rétrospective, des films familiaux d'enfants aveugles à l’âge de 12 mois, de 24 mois et entre 3 et 4 ans, sont analysés et les comportements de la communication sociale codifiés, afin de repérer des signes précurseurs des TSA. Des films d'enfants aveugles ayant un diagnostic ultérieur de TSA ont été comparés aux films d'enfants aveugles sans TSA. Les résultats indiquent une fréquence moins élevée chez les enfants ayant un diagnostic de TSA de certains signes de la communication sociale dès l'âge de 12 mois, avec des différences très marquées pour les comportements d'ouvertures sociales. D'importantes différences du langage fonctionnel sont observées à partir de l'âge de 24 mois. Des stéréotypés motrices et langagières sont observées à fréquence égale dans les deux groupes jusqu'à 3 ans mais ensuite diminuent chez les enfants sans troubles associés et augmentent chez les enfants avec TSA. Des différences dans le type d'activité ludique sont aussi observées, les jeux sensoriels étant plus fréquents chez les enfants aveugles avec TSA. Certains comportements de rejet social et de particularités sensorielles sont observés uniquement chez les enfants aveugles avec TSA. Ces résultats pourraient contribuer à une meilleure compréhension des signes autistiques chez les personnes aveugles, l'amélioration du dépistage des TSA chez les très jeunes enfants déficients visuels, et peuvent guider des dispositifs d'intervention précoce.
... Based on a wide variety of criteria and measures, SPD is commonly associated with other conditions, including co-occurrence in up to 70% of children with autism spectrum (ASD), anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD), and developmental coordination disorders [1,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. While sensory processing differences, particularly those related to auditory and visual discrimination, have been recognized and studied in the context of autism for decades, the importance of sensory over-responsivity (SOR), a component of SPD, has only recently gained widespread neuroscience and community attention [14][15][16][17][18]. SOR is characterized by extreme negative reactions to innocuous, common sensory experiences and is frequently reported in the auditory and tactile domains, therefore making these domains an excellent starting point for exploration of neural mechanisms which can then be expanded to visual, gustatory/olfactory, vestibular, and proprioception domains. ...
Background
Sensory processing dysfunction (SPD) is linked to altered white matter (WM) microstructure in school-age children. Sensory over-responsivity (SOR), a form of SPD, affects at least 2.5% of all children and has substantial deleterious impact on learning and mental health. However, SOR has not been well studied using microstructural imaging such as diffusion MRI (dMRI). Since SOR involves hypersensitivity to external stimuli, we test the hypothesis that children with SOR require compensatory neuroplasticity in the form of superior WM microstructural integrity to protect against internalizing behavior, leaving those with impaired WM microstructure vulnerable to somatization and depression.
Methods
Children ages 8–12 years old with neurodevelopmental concerns were assessed for SOR using a comprehensive structured clinical evaluation, the Sensory Processing 3 Dimensions Assessment, and underwent 3 Tesla MRI with multishell multiband dMRI. Tract-based spatial statistics was used to measure diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) metrics from global WM and nineteen selected WM tracts. Correlations of DTI and NODDI measures with measures of somatization and emotional disturbance from the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, 3rd edition (BASC-3), were computed in the SOR group and in matched children with neurodevelopmental concerns but not SOR.
Results
Global WM fractional anisotropy (FA) is negatively correlated with somatization and with emotional disturbance in the SOR group but not the non-SOR group. Also observed in children with SOR are positive correlations of radial diffusivity (RD) and free water fraction (FISO) with somatization and, in most cases, emotional disturbance. These effects are significant in boys with SOR, whereas the study is underpowered for girls. The most affected white matter are medial lemniscus and internal capsule sensory tracts, although effects of SOR are observed in many cerebral, cerebellar, and brainstem tracts.
Conclusion
White matter microstructure is related to affective behavior in children with SOR.
... The causes of these ritual behaviors can be perceptive in nature, since through such behaviors autistic children are able to perceive the surrounding environment and have greater safety. For this reason, much research has focused on sensory differences in autism and how the latter affect behavior, language acquisition and communication and social development (Bogdashina, 2013). Baruth et al. (2010) hypothesize that the sensory gating deficit present in autism spectrum disorders, that is, a disorder of the inhibitory function of the brain which consists in the inability to suppress distracting stimuli towards irrelevant sensory inputs, could be linked to inadequate sensory processing. ...
This paper focuses on robots used in educational and therapeutical interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Children with autism show a different way of perceiving environmental stimuli, they interpret reality based on the different cognitive and communicative styles that are often a source of discomfort. This work, based on the studies carried out on the interaction between the robot and the child with autism, highlights how robots (properly programmed) can bring benefits to children with sensory problems, and promote social interaction and communication. The aim of the research is to implement the prototype named ASD-Robot already tested, in a first test, at the "Collodi" primary school in Pagani in the province of Salerno, through interventions aimed at supporting children who show difficulties in social interaction, paying attention to different sensory perceptions that characterize children with ASD and helping them to understand the surrounding environment. Il presente articolo si concentra sui robot utilizzati negli interventi educativi e terapeutici per i bambini con disturbo dello spettro autistico. I bambini con autismo manifestano un modo differente di percepire gli stimoli ambientali, interpretano la realtà in base ai diversi stili cognitivi e comunicativi che spesso sono fonte di disagio. Questo lavoro, basato sugli studi effettuati sull'interazione tra il robot e il bambino con autismo, mette in evidenza come i robot (opportunamente programmati) possono portare benefici ai bambini con problemi sensoriali, e promuovere l'intera-zione sociale e la comunicazione. Scopo della ricerca è realizzare il prototipo denominato ASD-Robot già sperimen-tato, in un primo test presso la scuola primaria "Collodi" di Pagani in provincia di Salerno, attraverso interventi volti a sostenere i bambini che mostrano difficoltà nell'interazione sociale, ponendo attenzione alle differenti percezioni sensoriali che caratterizzano i bambini con ASD e aiutandoli a comprendere l'ambiente circostante.
... Following extensive research reporting that atypical sensory processing is a specific, universal and unique symptom of ASC [7], atypical sensory processing is now included within the latest diagnostic criterion of ASC [1]. Sensory processing involves the effective reception, organisation, integration, and interpretation of bodily and environmental sensory input [8]. ...
Background:
Previous research using the Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ) has reported greater sensory hypersensitivity in people with autism spectrum condition (ASC) compared to controls, consistent with other research. However, current scoring of the SPQ does not differentiate between hyper and hyposensitivity, making it uncertain whether individuals with ASC might also show differences in hyposensitivity. Furthermore, no research to date has focused on sensory differences in females, and whether differences in sensory sensitivity extend to the broader autism phenotype (BAP). The present study aimed to fill these gaps.
Methods:
The present study developed and validated a Revised Scoring of the Sensory Perception Quotient (SPQ-RS) in order to investigate self-reported hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity in three groups of adults: a female ASC group (n = 152), mothers of children with ASC (BAP mothers group; n = 103), and a control mothers group (n = 74). All participants completed the SPQ as a self-report measure of sensory processing and the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) as a measure of the degree of autism traits.
Results:
The female ASC group reported significantly more hypersensitivity, but not more hyposensitivity, compared to the control female and BAP mothers groups. The BAP mothers group did not differ from the control mothers group in either reported hypersensitivity (p = .365) or hyposensitivity (p = .075), suggesting atypical sensory sensitivity is not a BAP trait within females. SPQ-RS hypersensitivity scores positively correlated with autistic traits in the female ASC (r = .266) and BAP mothers groups (r = .350).
Conclusions:
The present findings revealed greater sensory hypersensitivity, but not hyposensitivity, in females with ASC compared to BAP and control female groups, and that a greater degree of autism traits relates to higher hypersensitivity in ASC females. The results offer support for the enhanced perceptual functioning model using large samples of females, who are an understudied population, and demonstrate the validity of the SPQ-RS as a valuable new research tool for exploring self-reported hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity.
... However, when the demands of everyday life produce considerable and debilitating anxieties, their avoidance is best understood not as pathological but as entirely reasonable and, indeed, rational (Woods, 2018). Research shows that autistic people see, feel and make sense of the world around them differently to neurotypical people and, because autism affects individuals in ways that are unique to them, differently from each other (Bogdashina, 2013). These differences can result in differences in communication, social interaction and sensitivities, with many autistic people experiencing hyper and/or hyposensitivity to their environment. ...
The term ‘pathological demand avoidance’ was first coined in 1983. In recent years, diagnostic tools have emerged to enable practitioners to identify, name and treat pathological demand avoidance and, at least in the United Kingdom, there is an increasing number of children who attract this label. In addition to what are defined as the core ‘deficits’ of autism, including assumed difficulties in social communication, difficulties in social interaction and restrictive interests, children with pathological demand avoidance are thought to have an extreme anxiety-driven need to control their environment and control the demands and expectations of others. This article will argue that we must exercise extreme caution in accepting the validity of pathological demand avoidance and will suggest that it can be seen as an attempt to psychiatarise autistic children’s resistance, which, in so doing, restricts their agency. First, it will draw on the arguments put forward by some autistic scholars who have claimed that pathological demand avoidance is better understood as rational demand avoidance – an understandable and rational response to the circumstances that one finds oneself in. Second, it will consider the intersection between autism and childhood. When one of the defining characteristics of pathological demand avoidance is an inability to recognise and, presumably, respect social hierarchy, children’s competencies as social actors and active meaning makers of their world can easily become pathologised as defiance. Finally, the article will address the intersections of autism, childhood and gender. Girls are much less likely to be diagnosed as having an autism spectrum condition than boys are, with a ratio traditionally estimated at approximately 1:4. However, pathological demand avoidance diagnoses are fairly evenly spread between boys and girls. It will be argued that it is girls’ resistance to the ordinary and everyday demands of her as a girl and her subsequent rejection or transgression of those expectations that is being pathologised.
... Certains seront gênés par ces stimuli tandis que d'autres les rechercheront entraînant des phénomènes de fascination et d'exploration visuelle exacerbées [8]. Ces anomalies peuvent entrainer des troubles de la coordination oculo-manuelle et une lenteur de la poursuite oculaire [9]. Elles pourraient être aussi responsables des anomalies d'exploration des scènes visuelles identifiées grâce à un système d'eye tracking : les sujets avec TSA ont tendance à s'attacher à regarder des détails et plutôt l'arrière-plan que le premier plan et les visages [10]. ...
ABSTRACT
Objective : Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neuro-developmental disorder resulting on atypical cognitive development characterized by communication and language disorders, restricted behaviors and sensory abnormalities, present in the most of subjects. These abnormalities cause many disorders, including motor and sensory-motor troubles. Imitation, which is characterized by the coordination between a visually perceived behavior and actively produced behavior, is in this perspective, a sophisticated sensory-motor coordination. It is strongly troubled in children with ASD, with significant negative effects on their future socio-communicative development. The aim of this research is to determine if imitation disorders increase with the number of sensory abnormalities,
Methods : 22 children (18 boys), aged from 3 to 5 years, were included in this study. Autism was assessed by the Chilhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation schedule (ADOS). Dunn's Sensory and Revised Perceptual Profile was administered to determine the sensory profile for five senses : visual, auditive, tactile, proprioceptive and vestibular. Four types of imitation were evaluated: facial, motor, vocal and object. Statistical analyzes were conducted on the different scores obtained.
Results: All children with autism have sensory abnormalities and imitation disorders. The more the children have sensory particularities, especially visual, the more their imitation skills are weak, especially in facial imitation. Imitation on object, conversely, seems less impacted.
Conclusion: The sensory abnormalities could constitute a screen to the realization of the imitative tasks, by preventing the children to reach the social dimension of the imitation for example. These results illustrate the need to take into account these sensory features in specific care.
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... Therapeutic interventions may reroute this drive by providing alternative strategies for stimulation [45]. Sensory stimulation as a function of NSSI is highly relevant for autistic people, as different sensory-perceptual experience of the world is very common in autism (see [46,47]). Some individuals show a pattern of low registration or under-responsivity (a weak response to stimulation due to a high neurological threshold [47]); some seek sensation for stimulation; others show sensory sensitivity or over-responsivity, a low neurological threshold leading to exaggerated and uncomfortable sensory experiences [47]; heterogeneous sensory symptoms are modulated by age, IQ and severity of autism, and individuals may show more than one pattern in different sensory modalities [48]. ...
Background
Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) describes a phenomenon where individuals inflict deliberate pain and tissue damage to their bodies. Self-injurious behaviour is especially prevalent across the autism spectrum, but little is understood about the features and functions of self-injury for autistic individuals without intellectual disability, or about the risk factors that might be valuable for clinical usage in this group.
Methods
One hundred and three autistic adults who responded to an online advertisement were classified as current, historic or non-self-harmers in accordance with responses to the Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Assessment Tool (NSSI-AT). Multinomial regression aimed to predict categorisation of participants in accordance with scores on tests of autistic traits, alexithymia, depression, anxiety, mentalising and sensory sensitivity. Linear regression examined relationships between these predictors and the range, frequency, lifetime occurrence and functional purposes of NSSI. Qualitative analysis explored the therapeutic interventions that participants had found helpful, and what they wished people understood about self-injury.
Results
Current, historic and non-self-harming participants did not differ in age, age at diagnosis, male-to-female ratio, level of employment or education (the majority qualified to at least degree level). The most common function of NSSI was the regulation of low-energy affective states (depression, dissociation), followed by the regulation of high-energy states such as anger and anxiety. Alexithymia significantly predicted the categorisation of participants as current, historic or non-self-harmers, and predicted use of NSSI for regulating high-energy states and communicating distress to others. Depression, anxiety and sensory-sensitivity also differentiated participant groups, and sensory differences also predicted the range of bodily areas targeted, lifetime incidence and frequency of NSSI. Sensory differences, difficulty expressing and identifying emotions also emerged as problematic in the qualitative analysis, where participants expressed the need for compassion, patience, non-judgement and the need to recognise diversity between self-harmers, with some participants perceiving NSSI as a practical, non-problematic coping strategy.
Conclusions
Alexithymia, depression, anxiety and sensory differences may place some autistic individuals at especial risk of self-injury. Investigating the involvement of these variables and their utility for identification and treatment is of high importance, and the voices of participants offer guidance to practitioners confronted with NSSI in their autistic clients.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1186/s13229-019-0267-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
The review of the publications devoted to the methods of early diagnosing autism spectrum disorders (ASD) among children. The spread of this pathology causes mixed assessments in scientific community. The frequency of ASD in different countries makes up from 5 to 90 among 10,000 children and teenagers. An increase in morbidity makes the problem of diagnosing ASD among children very urgent. The main method of diagnosing is behavioral, but they allow to diagnose autism when the child is older than 1.5 years old, when medical and corrective actions are no longer effective. The prenatal diagnostics of the ASD are almost unused. The methods of genetic analysis are considered to be additional and don’t have the direct diagnostic meaning connected with the lack of clear understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of ASD. According to Russian medical regulations children having early signs of autism can’t be defined in the age when timely medical treatment is effective. Due to this fact it was concluded that it is necessary to develop screening methods and regulations of providing medical treatment to children an teenagers having ASD.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the experience of intimate relationships of women who have been diagnosed with Autism in adulthood.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were used to interview eight participants. The data were transcribed and analysed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis method.
Findings
Four overall themes were identified. These included “Response to the diagnosis and receiving more information about Autism”, “Factors influencing dating behaviour”, “Sex and sexual experiences” and “Experience of intimate relationships as a person with Autism”.
Research limitations/implications
The results of this study have implications for both research and clinical practice as it highlights the areas in which women newly diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) could benefit from support.
Practical implications
The study hopes to add to the limited existing research on adult women with ASD.
Originality/value
To date no similar research has investigated the same phenomenon through a similar method.
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