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. 2023 Jul;53(7):2891-2904.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05570-7. Epub 2022 Apr 28.

Atypical Tactile Perception in Early Childhood Autism

Svenja Espenhahn  1   2   3 , Kate J Godfrey  4   2   3   5 , Sakshi Kaur  4   2   3 , Carly McMorris  4   2   3   6 , Kara Murias  4   2   3   7 , Mark Tommerdahl  8 , Signe Bray #  1   4   2   3 , Ashley D Harris #  9   10   11   12
Affiliations

Atypical Tactile Perception in Early Childhood Autism

Svenja Espenhahn et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

We assessed different aspects of tactile perception in young children (3-6 years) with autism. Autistic and neurotypical children completed vibrotactile tasks assessing reaction time, amplitude discrimination (sequential and simultaneous) and temporal discrimination (temporal order judgment and duration discrimination). Autistic children had elevated and more variable reaction times, suggesting slower perceptual-motor processing speed and/or greater distractibility. Children with autism also showed higher amplitude discrimination and temporal order judgement thresholds compared to neurotypical children. Tactile perceptual metrics did not associate with social or tactile sensitivities measured by parent-reports. Altered tactile behavioral responses appear in early childhood, can be quantified but appear dissociated from sensitivity. This implies these measures are complementary, but not necessarily related, phenomena of atypical tactile perception in autism.

Keywords: Parental questionnaires; Preschool; Sensitivity; Tactile; Tactile psychophysics; Touch.

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Conflict of interest statement

MT is co-founder of Cortical Metrics, LLC. Cortical Metrics is licensed by the University of North Carolina to distribute the tactile stimulator used in this study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic of tactile testing battery. A two-digit tactile stimulator was used for stimulus delivery to the left middle and index finger (top right). A, Reaction time (RT); B, Sequential and C, simultaneous amplitude discrimination (sqAD, smAD); D, Temporal order judgement (TOJ); E, Duration discrimination (DD). The standard stimulus is shown in orange and the comparison stimulus in blue. (Figure modified from (Kaur et al., 2021))
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Reaction time and amplitude discrimination measures. A, Reaction times (RT) for children on the autism spectrum (AS, wine red) were slower and more variable compared to neurotypical (NT, blue) children. B, C, Sequential (sqAD) and simultaneous (smAD) amplitude discrimination thresholds were higher in children with autism than neurotypical children. D, The amplitude difference between the sqAD and smAD thresholds was not significantly different between groups. Dots represent individual participants and black bars represent mean ±SD across participants. All values are adjusted for age. Statistical group differences: *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001, grey *p < 0.1 (trend), ns: non-significant
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Temporal discrimination measures. A, Temporal order judgement (TOJ) thresholds were higher in children on the autism spectrum (AS, wine red) than neurotypical (NT, blue) children. B, Duration discrimination (DD) thersholds were similar between children with and without autism. Dots represent individual participants and black bars represent mean ± SD across participants. All values are adjusted for age. Statistical group differences: *p < 0.05, ns: non-significant
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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