Abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often behaviorally hyper-reactive to light touch, but it is unclear to what degree this arises from a fundamental sensory difference vs. higher order systems for attention or emotion processing. Thus far, experimental findings for light touch detection are mixed, and few previous studies have independently considered sensitivity (the ability to discriminate signal from noise) and decision criterion (the overall response bias or tendency to answer “yes” or “no” in a detection task). We tested a large sample of children, adolescents, and adults with ASD (n = 88) and with neurotypical (NT) development (n = 59) using von Frey filaments to derive light touch thresholds at the palm. We calculated signal detection metrics for sensitivity (Az) and response criterion (c) from hit and false alarm rates. Both metrics exhibited significant group differences, such that the ASD group was less sensitive, but had a much more conservative response criterion. We used a best subset model selection procedure in three separate ordinal regressions for the whole group, adults, and children/adolescents. In all selected models, c was by far the most significant predictor of threshold, supplanting effects of diagnostic group that were significant in the baseline models. In contrast, Az was not a significant predictor of threshold in any of the models. Mean values of c were similar for adults with and without autism and for children/adolescents with ASD, but lower (more liberal) in neurotypical children/adolescents. This suggests that children with ASD exhibit a conservatism in their perceptual decision-making that differs from their NT peers but resembles that of adults. Across the sample, the value of c was significantly and positively correlated with age and with autism symptoms (SRS-2 total score), in addition to thresholds. The results of this study suggest that, rather than a sensory difference in detection of light touch, there is a difference in response bias such that children with ASD are more conservative/likely to report “no” if unsure, than their young NT peers. Future work should consider the implications of conservative response criterion in ASD for commonly used forced-choice psychophysical paradigms.
Highlights
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in the social-communication and stereotypical behavior domains (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP) scores indicated that the ASD group had elevated sensory abnormalities in low registration, sensory sensitivity, and sensory avoiding, but scores on the sensation seeking quadrant were more atypical in the NT group
In a large sample of individuals with autism that included both children and adults, we found elevated thresholds to light touch at the thenar eminence of the palm
Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in the social-communication and stereotypical behavior domains (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Abnormal responses to sensory stimuli are an extremely commonly reported behavioral feature of ASD, prompting the addition of “hypo- or hyper-reactivity to sensory input” as part of the repetitive behavior domain in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Sensory abnormalities in ASD present themselves in varying patterns across multiple modalities like hypo-reactivity to sound but hyper-reactivity to touch (Baranek et al, 2006). One problem is that there is a lack of behavioral measures that assess hypo- or hyper-reactivity in a single sensory modality. These measures reflect the multisensory heterogeneity described above, in which different sensory modalities may contribute to the same behavioral reactivity pattern. The complexity of behavioral reactivity, encompassing sensory, perceptual, emotional, and cognitive factors, may not map cleanly onto pure sensory detection ability as measured by psychophysical paradigms
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