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. 2019 Sep;49(9):3625-3637.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-04079-w.

Interoception is Impaired in Children, But Not Adults, with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Toby Nicholson  1 , David Williams  2 , Katie Carpenter  1 , Aimilia Kallitsounaki  1
Affiliations

Interoception is Impaired in Children, But Not Adults, with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Toby Nicholson et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2019 Sep.

Abstract

Interoception (the ability to sense what's going on inside one's body) is considered integral to many higher-order cognitive processes. Some have speculated that impaired interoception may underpin some features of ASD. Yet, in Experiment 1, we found no evidence of a between-group difference in either cardiac or respiratory interoceptive accuracy among 21 adults with ASD and 21 matched controls. Bayesian analyses suggested the data strongly supported the null hypothesis. In Experiment 2, we measured cardiac interoceptive accuracy in 21 children with ASD and 21 matched controls. Here interoceptve accuracy was significantly diminished in the ASD group and was associated with a moderate-to-large effect size. Results suggest early interoception difficulties are resolved or compensated for by adulthood in people with ASD.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Developmental disorders; Interoception; Interoceptive accuracy.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Cardiac interoceptive accuracy scores for each time period for each group during the HTT in experiment one. Error bars represent SEM
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Respiratory interoceptive accuracy scores for each level of intensity for each group during the BCT in experiment one. Error bars represent SEM
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Cardiac interoceptive accuracy scores for each time period for each group during the HTT in experiment two. Error bars represent SEM
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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