Reduced preference for smooth over rough surfaces in autism spectrum disorder

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Recent studies have revealed that atypical sensory perception is common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is considered a potential cause of social difficulties. Self-reports by individuals with ASD have provided great insights into atypical perception from the first-person point of view and indicated its dependence on the environment. This study aimed to investigate the patterns and environmental causes of atypical auditory perception in individuals with ASD. Qualitative data from subject reports are inappropriate for statistical analysis, and reporting subjective sensory experiences is not easy for every individual. To cope with such challenges, we employed audio signal processing methods to simulate the potential patterns of atypical auditory perception. The participants in our experiment were able to select and adjust the strength of the processing methods to manipulate the sounds in the videos to match their experiences. Thus, the strength of atypical perception was recorded quantitatively and then analyzed to assess its correlation with the audio-visual stimuli contained in the videos the participants observed. In total, 22 participants with ASD and 22 typically developed (TD) participants were recruited for the experiment. The results revealed several common patterns of atypical auditory perception: Louder sounds perceived in a quiet environment, noise perception induced by intense and unsteady audio-visual stimuli, and echo perception correlated with movement and variation in sound level. The ASD group reported atypical perceptions more frequently than the control group. However, similar environmental causes were shared by the ASD and TD groups. The results help us infer the potential neural and physiological mechanisms of sensory processing in ASD.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by deficits in social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors. Emerging evidence suggests a link between immune dysregulation and ASD. This study investigates alterations in monocyte subpopulations and cytokine production in children with ASD and their potential associations with ASD risk and severity. Initially, the immune status of peripheral blood mononuclear cells was assessed in cohort-I of 96 typically developing (TD) children and 92 children diagnosed with ASD using flow cytometry. Subsequently, the secretion of cytokines IL-6 and IL-10 by monocytes was evaluated following stimulation with a leukocyte activation mixture and intracellular protein staining technique in cohort-II. Children with ASD exhibited significantly higher levels of total monocytes, classical monocytes (CD14hi/CD16-), and non-classical monocytes (CD14low/CD16+) compared to TD children (p<0.001). Elevated levels of classical monocytes (β: 0.395; 95%CI: 0.260-0.530; p<0.001) and non-classical monocytes (β: 0.629; 95%CI: 0.516-0.742; p<0.001) were significantly associated with ASD after adjusting for age, sex and body mass index. Furthermore, increased production of IL-6 by monocytes was observed in children with ASD (p=0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that classical monocytes (OR: 1.104; 95%CI: 1.062-1.147; p<0.001), non-classical monocytes (OR: 2.913; 95%CI: 2.130-3.986; p<0.001) and IL-6 production by monocytes (OR: 1.306; 95%CI: 1.096-1.557; p=0.003) are risk factors for ASD. Spearman correlation analysis revealed a negative correlation between classical monocyte levels and adaptive behavior developmental quotient (DQ) (r=-0.377; p=0.001), fine motor DQ (r=-0.329; p=0.003) and personal-social DQ (r=-0.247; p=0.029) in children with ASD. Elevated classical and non-classical monocytes are potential risk factors for ASD and may influence neurodevelopmental outcomes. Further research is needed to elucidate the precise mechanisms and therapeutic implications.

AimPrevious studies have reported atypical sensory responses in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their implications for social touch. Although adults with ASD often report discomfort with being touched by others, their preferences for the physical properties of objects are less well understood. In a prior study, we observed that, in typically developed (TD) adults, compliance (a physical correlate of softness) increased tactile pleasantness for deformable surfaces up to levels comparable to those of human body parts. In the present study, we conducted psychophysical experiments to test whether individuals with ASD show atypical affective responses to soft objects resembling human body parts.MethodsThirty‐six adults with ASD and 36 TD adults numerically estimated the perceived pleasantness or softness while lightly pressing urethane rubbers with their right index fingers.ResultsThe results revealed that pleasantness increased as a function of compliance, but this increase was significantly smaller for patients with ASD than TD adults, particularly at compliance levels including human body parts. However, the perceived softness increased as a function of compliance highly similarly between the ASD and TD groups.ConclusionsThese findings demonstrate an atypical preference of individuals with ASD for soft objects such as human body parts, which may help explain their tendency to avoid social touch.

Japanese ideophones (onomatopoeia) constitute a unique lexical system that conveys complex sensations and emotions through embodied sound symbolism. Because adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show weak sensitivity to sound-symbolism, their engagement with ideophones may diverge from that of typically developing (TD) adults. We addressed this possibility in two experiments involving adults with ASD who have normal language abilities and no sensory-processing abnormalities. In Study 1, thirty-one tactile ideophones were rated on five physical and two emotional dimensions using a semantic-differential questionnaire. In Study 2, participants palpated 15 fabrics and selected all ideophones that captured each sensation. In Study 1, mean ratings, representational-similarity matrices, and response variabilities did not differ between groups, indicating that ASD adults share a semantic understanding of ideophones with TD adults. In Study 2, group-level choice distributions and the fabric representational-similarity structure based on those choices again aligned across ASD and TD groups. However, multidimensional scaling of individual choice profiles revealed pronounced dispersion in ASD. Two factors accounted for this variability: ASD participants selected fewer ideophones per fabric, and their ideophone combinations were highly idiosyncratic, whereas ideophone combinations were widely shared among TD individuals. Taken together, the results show that adults with ASD possess intact semantic representations of tactile ideophones yet adopt a more restricted and individualized strategy when translating concrete sensory experiences into linguistic expressions. This localized, less convergent usage may contribute to the qualitative communication difficulties often observed in ASD, despite intact lexical-semantic knowledge and representational similarity structures.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often exhibit difficulties in sensory processing, including visual hypersensitivity such as photophobia. This study investigates the neural mechanisms underlying photophobia in participants with ASD by analyzing pupillary responses. To achieve this, we examined the amplitude and velocity gradient (latency) of these responses. Pupillary responses were recorded using an eye-tracking system in participants with ASD (n = 17) and typically developing (TD) (n = 23). Stimuli alternated between bright (89.03 cd/m2) and dark (0.07 cd/m2) conditions following a dim state (2.75 cd/m2) with intervals of five seconds in Experiment 1 and 30 seconds in Experiment 2. The sensory profile test (AASP-J) showed that hypersensitivity was significantly defined in the ASD group than in the TD group. The pupillary response in the ASD group often featured missing values due to blinking during rapid alternation between bright and dark conditions, resulting in a decrease in the total number of participants. Specifically, only eight of the 17 participants in the ASD group and 20 of the 23 participants in the TD group remained for analysis in Experiment 1, and in Experiment 2, 15 of the 17 participants in the ASD group and 20 of the 23 participants in the TD group remained for analysis. In the dim state, pupillary diameter was large in the ASD and TD group in both experiments, while the pupil diameter decreased in the TD group in Experiment 2. In both experiments, maximum amplitude and its latency showed no significant differences between the two groups. However, the velocity gradient for the early mydriatic process in the dark condition was significantly faster in the ASD group. ASD individuals with hypersensitivity tend to have large pupil diameters under the dim state, as well as rapid dilation in the dark condition. These results may suggest a problem in the sympathetic nervous system, which controls pupil constriction.

Individuals with autism demonstrate atypical and variable responses to social and emotional stimuli, perhaps reflecting heterogeneity of the disorder. The goal of this study was to determine whether unique profiles of psychophysiological responses to such stimuli could be identified in individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with fragile X syndrome (FXS), and with comorbid autism and fragile X syndrome (ASD + FXS), and in typically developing (TYP) individuals. This study included 52 boys (ages 10–17): idiopathic ASD (n = 12), FXS (n = 12), comorbid ASD + FXS (n = 17), and TYP (n = 11). Physiological responses, including potentiated startle, electrodermal response, heart rate variability, and vagal tone, were collected concurrently while participants viewed emotionally evocative pictures of human faces or nonsocial images. Although some of these measures have been utilized separately for investigations on these diagnostic groups, they have not been considered together. Results using Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance by ranks indicate statistically significant differences in distributions of autonomic regulation responses between groups. The most notable differences were between the ASD group and both the FXS groups on measures of sympathetic activity, with FXS groups evincing increased activity. Also, both the ASD and ASD + FXS groups showed significantly decreased parasympathetic activity compared with FXS and TYP groups. In addition, the ASD + FXS group demonstrated a unique distribution of startle potentiation and arousal modulation. This study provides evidence that autonomic arousal and regulation profiles could be useful for distinguishing subgroups of autism and shed light on the variability underlying emotional responsivity.

The objective of this study is to investigate whether parentally-reported gastro-intestinal (GI) symptoms are increased in a population-derived sample of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) compared to controls. Participants included 132 children with ASD and 81 with special educational needs (SEN) but no ASD, aged 10-14years plus 82 typically developing (TD) children. Data were collected on GI symptoms, diet, cognitive abilities, and developmental histories. Nearly half (weighted rate 46.5%) of children with ASD had at least one individual lifetime GI symptom compared with 21.8% of TD children and 29.2% of those with SEN. Children with ASD had more past and current GI symptoms than TD or SEN groups although fewer current symptoms were reported in all groups compared with the past. The ASD group had significantly increased past vomiting and diarrhoea compared with the TD group and more abdominal pain than the SEN group. The ASD group had more current constipation (when defined as bowel movement less than three times per week) and soiling than either the TD or SEN groups. No association was found between GI symptoms and intellectual ability, ASD severity, ASD regression or limited or faddy diet. Parents report more GI symptoms in children with ASD than children with either SEN or TD children but the frequency of reported symptoms is greater in the past than currently in all groups.

Social communication, repetitive behaviors and interests, and adaptive behavior in girls with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability were compared to a group of typically developing (TD) girls.Thirty seven girls 7;5-15;2 were included: 18 ASD and 19 TD. Groups were matched on age and IQ. Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ), Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2), and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS-2) were administered.Item level scores within the subdomains of reciprocal social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviors and interests were examined on the SCQ and ADOS-2. With unadjusted p, significant differences between groups were observed on 21 of 36 items on the SCQ. With adjusted p, significant differences between groups were observed on 17 of the 36 total items. With unadjusted p, significant differences between groups were observed on 20 of 32 total items on the ADOS-2. With adjusted p, significant differences between groups were observed on 16 of the 32 total items. Within the ASD group significant negative correlation was observed between ADOS-2 repetitive behaviors and interests and SCQ communication. The ASD group demonstrated borderline to moderately low VABS-2 scores.Girls with ASD may demonstrate relative strengths in social communication on diagnostic measures. Differences in the expression of repetitive behaviors and interests between girls with ASD and girls with TD may not be observed during structured observation but may be reported by parents. Girls with ASD demonstrate weaker socialization skills relative to other adaptive behaviors and indicate a priority for treatment.

Robots are becoming a part of humans' social life as assistants, companionbots, therapists, and entertainers. One promising application of the socially assistive robots is in autism therapy, where robots are employed to enhance verbal and nonverbal skills (e.g. eye-gaze attention, facial expression mimicry) of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). One important question is How the gaze responses of individuals with ASD differ from that of Typically Developing (TD) peers when interacting with a robot? We present the results of our recent studies for modeling and analyzing the gaze pattern of children with ASD when they interact with a robot called NAO. This paper reports the differences of gaze responses of TD and ASD group in two conversational contexts: Speaking versus Listening. We used Variable-order Markov Model (VMM) to discover the temporal gaze directional patterns of ASD and TD groups. The results reveal that the gaze responses of the TD individuals in speaking and listening contexts, can be best modeled by VMM with order zero and three, respectively. As we expected, the result show that the temporal gaze patterns of typically developed children are varying when the role in the conversational context is changed. However for the ASD individuals for both conversational contexts the VMM with order one could best fit the data. Overall, the results conclude that VMM is a powerful technique to model different gaze responses of TD and ASD individuals in speaking and listening contexts.

We and others have demonstrated the resting-state (RS) peak alpha frequency (PAF) as a potential clinical marker for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with previous studies observing a higher PAF in school-age children with ASD versus typically developing (TD) children, as well as an association between the RS PAF and measures of processing speed in TD but not ASD. The brain mechanisms associated with these findings are unknown. A few studies have found that in children more mature optic radiation white matter is associated with a higher PAF. Other studies have reported white matter and neural activity associations in TD but not ASD. The present study hypothesized that group differences in the RS PAF are due, in part, to group differences in optic radiation white matter and PAF associations. The maturation of the RS PAF (measured using magnetoencephalography(MEG)), optic radiation white matter (measured using diffusion tensor imaging(DTI)), and associations with processing speed were assessed in a longitudinal cohort of TD and ASD children. Time 1 MEG and DTI measures were obtained at 6–8 years old (59TD and 56ASD) with follow-up brain measures collected ~ 1.5 and ~ 3 years later. The parietal-occipital PAF increased with age in both groups by 0.13 Hz/year, with a main effect of group showing the expected higher PAF in ASD than TD (an average of 0.26 Hz across the 3 time points). Across age, the RS PAF predicted processing speed in TD but not ASD. Finally, more mature optic radiation white matter measures (FA, RD, MD, AD) were associated with a higher PAF in both groups. Present findings provide additional evidence supporting the use of the RS PAF as a brain marker in children with ASD 6–10 years old, and replicate findings of an association between the RS PAF and processing speed in TD but not ASD. The hypothesis that the RS PAF group differences (with ASD leading TD by about 2 years) would be explained by group differences in optic radiation white matter was not supported, with brain structure-function associations indicating that more mature optic radiation white matter is associated with a higher RS PAF in both groups.

IntroductionVerbal fluency, a cognitive function that reflects executive functions and the rapid retrieval of pertinent information from memory, has yielded inconsistent findings in previous research on autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however in schizophrenia (SCH) semantic fluency exhibits a more pronounced impairment compared to letter fluency.ObjectivesIn this study we aim to comprehensively investigate verbal fluency in ASD, SCH, and neurotypical healthy control individuals (NTP). The primary objective is to investigate disparities in novel response generation, specifically between the ASD, SCH and NTP groups, using phonemic and semantic fluency tasks. Three central inquiries guide our research: (1) whether differences between groups (ASD, SCH, and NTP) can be identified in word productivity, clustering, errors, and perseverations; (2) whether participants with ASD and SCH exhibit different word production with elevated imageability and concreteness values; and (3) if individuals with ASD and schizophrenia demonstrate reduced productivity during the earlier phases of fluency tasks.MethodsForty participants with ASD (12 female, 24 male, 4 other, mean age: 30.5), 39 with SCH (10 female, 28 male, 1 other, mean age: 34.7) and 41 NTP (13 female, 28 male, mean age: 31.0) were recruited from the outpatient units of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Semmelweis University. Participants were requested to list as many words as they could on two phonemic and two semantic category conditions. Audio recordings were later transcribed. To assess concreteness and imageability, we employed a seven-point scale and recruited independent external raters to evaluate a total of 1481 words.ResultsPreliminary results indicate that the three study groups did not differ significantly in phonemic fluency (F(2, 119)= 0.983, p=0.377), during either time period. However, a significant difference was observed in semantic fluency (F(2, 119)= 6.531, p=0.002). Post-hoc tests (Tukey corrected) revealed that this difference stemmed from impaired performance in the SCH group. Participants with schizophrenia (SCH) exhibited reduced semantic word productivity compared to both neurotypical (NTP) individuals and participants with ASD (Figure 1). However, there were no significant differences between participants with ASD and NTP individuals.Image:ConclusionsIn conclusion, our study investigated the characteristics of verbal fluency in a transdiagnostic approach. While phonemic fluency did not reveal significant differences among the three groups, our analysis of semantic fluency unveiled a distinction. Specifically, individuals with schizophrenia exhibited impaired semantic word productivity. Our study highlights the complex nature of verbal fluency impairments in different conditions and the importance of considering more nuanced methods when assessing cognitive functions.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

To describe the quality of life (QOL) of South African parents caring for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as compared with parents of typically developing (TD) children from the same community. A cross-sectional study was done evaluating the QOL of parents of 52 children (26 parents of children with ASD versus 26 parents of TD children) using a structured measure, (World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment-BREF). The mean age of the children with ASD was 64.9 months (SD 14.5) versus 60.1 months (SD 13.5) for TD group. There was a male predominance among group of children with ASD (48 boys, four girls). The mean parental age of the ASD group was 32.9 years (SD 7.8) compared with 33.8 years (SD 6.8) for the TD group. As compared with parents of the TD children, parents of children with ASD had lower mean QOL scores in the four QOL domains: physical, psychological, social and environmental health (p<0.0001). the domain where the discrepancy between groups was greatest was the physical domain Where the mean score was 52.1 (SD 18.7) in the ASD group and 92 (SD 10.4) in the TD group. Lower income, severity level of ASD and lack of access to school placement of children with ASD were found significantly associated with parents' QOL domains. QOL of parents of children with ASD is significant lower than that of the parents of their TD peers across all domains and is an important component in management of the family which needs to be explored and addressed.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterised by impairments in social communication, repetitive behaviours, and restricted interests. Emerging evidence suggests that immune system dysregulation, particularly alterations in the complement system, may contribute to ASD pathophysiology. This study aimed to compare the serum levels of complement proteins (C1q, C2, C3, C4, MBL, L-ficolin, and hsCRP) between children with ASD and non-ASD controls. A total of 88 children (44 with ASD and 44 age- and sex-matched healthy controls) participated in this study. Complement protein levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (from serum samples. The severity of ASD symptoms was assessed using standardised diagnostic tools, including the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, the Autism Behaviour Checklist, and the Repetitive Behaviour Scale-Revised. Serum C1q levels were significantly lower in the ASD group (p < 0.001). C3 levels were lower (p = 0.033), while C2 levels were slightly higher (p = 0.015) in the ASD group. There are no significant differences in C4, MBL, or L-ficolin levels. Logistic regression analysis identified reduced C1q levels as a significant predictor of ASD (p = 0.001). However, this study found no significant correlations between complement levels and ASD symptom severity scores. The findings suggest that alterations in complement system proteins, particularly reduced serum C1q levels, may be associated with ASD. Given C1q’s critical role in synaptic pruning and neuroimmune regulation, these results support the hypothesis that complement system dysfunction may contribute to the pathophysiology of ASD.

Whilst traditional definitions of savant syndrome assumed an association between intellectual impairment and talent in atypical populations, reports of outstanding talents in intellectually high functioning individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) highlighted limitations in these early definitions and led to a reconsideration of the syndrome. This redefinition raised interesting questions about how talented high functioning individuals with ASD might differ from those with the same diagnosis but without outstanding talents. Motivated by early and more recent theoretical models of savant syndrome, the studies described in this thesis investigated the clinical and cognitive correlates of savant syndrome in a comparison of age and intelligence matched children with ASD who did or did not possess outstanding skills. In the clinical assessment phase of testing, participants with outstanding skills, validated across a number of domains, together with groups of ASD and typically developing (TD) control participants completed tests of symptom severity, sensory abnormality and obsessionality. The results from these assessments failed to reveal a significant difference on measures of symptom severity between the ASD groups, although the savants appeared to be less impaired in the domain of creativity. There was also a trend for savants to be less impaired in sensory domains, and this was particularly marked in visual and auditory filtering which may be important for savant skills. The two ASD groups did not differ on the numbers of obsessions reported, although savant obsessions tended to be more focussed on functional domains (e.g. crafts and numbers) than the obsessions reported for non-savants. Both ASD groups showed marked obsessional tendencies in comparison to TD controls. The cognitive test battery probed concentration, intelligence, cognitive style and pattern perception in the two groups. This revealed superior concentration, pattern perception and performance on several measures of intelligence and local processing in the savant group. However, a logistic regression analysis carried out on the tests that distinguished savants and non-savants in the group comparison studies, showed that measures of concentration and working memory were most powerful in predicting savant status. It was therefore concluded that whilst new theoretical accounts of savant syndrome, highlighting superior pattern processing abilities, provide an advance on earlier theories, they underestimate the importance of working memory and therefore merit further revision.