Disorder-specific alterations of tactile sensitivity in neurodevelopmental disorders

Jason L He,Stewart H Mostofsky,Mark Mikkelsen,Richard A E Edden,Mark Tommerdahl,Nicolaas A J Puts,Ericka Wodka

doi:10.1038/s42003-020-01592-y

Abstract

Alterations of tactile processing have long been identified in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the extent to which these alterations are disorder-specific, rather than disorder-general, and how they relate to the core symptoms of each disorder, remains unclear. We measured and compared tactile detection, discrimination, and order judgment thresholds between a large sample of children with ASD, ADHD, ASD + ADHD combined and typically developing controls. The pattern of results suggested that while difficulties with tactile detection and order judgement were more common in children with ADHD, difficulties with tactile discrimination were more common in children with ASD. Interestingly, in our subsequent correlation analyses between tactile perception and disorder-specific clinical symptoms, tactile detection and order judgment correlated exclusively with the core symptoms of ADHD, while tactile discrimination correlated exclusively with the symptoms of ASD. When taken together, these results suggest that disorder-specific alterations of lower-level sensory processes exist and are specifically related to higher-level clinical symptoms of each disorder.

Highlights

Alterations of tactile processing have long been identified in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
While tactile processing abnormalities have been reported in both ASD and ADHD11,12, the extent to which these abnormalities are specific to each disorder, and how they relate to the core behavioral phenotypes of each disorder remain unclear
Our results provide an important description of tactile processing abnormalities in ASD and ADHD, showing that children with ASD, ADHD, and ASD + ADHD do have alterations in tactile processing, the perceptual domains in which those alterations occur, and how they relate to clinical symptomology, follow a disorder-specific pattern

Summary

Introduction

Alterations of tactile processing have long been identified in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In our subsequent correlation analyses between tactile perception and disorder-specific clinical symptoms, tactile detection and order judgment correlated exclusively with the core symptoms of ADHD, while tactile discrimination correlated exclusively with the symptoms of ASD When taken together, these results suggest that disorder-specific alterations of lower-level sensory processes exist and are related to higher-level clinical symptoms of each disorder. Studies which have aimed to characterize tactile processing abnormalities in ASD and ADHD have typically relied on subjective self/caregiver report questionnaires[11,27,28,29,30] While informative in their own right[28], these are limited in their ability to address the disorder-specificity of sensory and, tactile abnormalities in ASD and ADHD, as well as whether and how they relate to the core symptoms of each disorder.

Methods

Results

Conclusion