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. 2020 Nov;50(11):4183-4190.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-020-04458-8.

Brief Report: Reduced Heart Rate Variability in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Catharine Lory  1 , Girija Kadlaskar  2 , Rebecca McNally Keehn  3 , Alexander L Francis  2 , Brandon Keehn  2   4
Affiliations

Brief Report: Reduced Heart Rate Variability in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Catharine Lory et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which can be indexed by heart rate variability (HRV), has been posited to contribute to core features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the relationship between ASD and HRV remains uncertain. We assessed tonic and phasic HRV of 21 children with ASD and 21 age- and IQ-matched typically developing (TD) children and examined (1) group differences in HRV and (2) associations between HRV and ASD symptomatology. Children with ASD showed significantly lower tonic HRV, but similar phasic HRV compared to TD children. Additionally, reduced tonic HRV was associated with atypical attentional responsivity in ASD. Our findings suggest ANS dysregulation is present in ASD and may contribute to atypical attentional responses to sensory stimulation.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Autonomic arousal; ECG; Heart rate variability.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

All authors report no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1a.
Figure 1a.
Comparison of mean HRV across all blocks between ASD and TD groups; * p < .05
Figure 1b.
Figure 1b.
Scatterplot of correlation of SP-2 Attentional subscore and overall HRV.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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