Panju Sakeena, Brian Jessica, Dupuis Annie, Anagnostou Evdokia, Kushki Azadeh
Division of Engineering Science, University of Toronto, 35 St. George Street, M5S 1A4 Toronto, Canada ; Bloorview Research Institute, 150 Kilgour Road, M4G 1R8 Toronto, Canada.
Bloorview Research Institute, 150 Kilgour Road, M4G 1R8 Toronto, Canada.
Mol Autism. 2015 Dec 11;6:64. doi: 10.1186/s13229-015-0057-5. eCollection 2015.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been associated with autonomic atypicalities, although the nature of these differences remains largely unknown. Moreover, existing literature suggests large variability in autonomic function in ASD, motivating the need to examine the existence of subgroups that exhibit more homogeneous autonomic features.
Electrodermal activity (EDA), a non-invasive physiological indicator of autonomic activity, was measured in typically developing children (n = 33) and those with ASD (n = 38) as participants performed tasks that elicit anxiety, attention, response inhibition, and social cognition processes. The ASD group was divided into low- (n = 18) and high-anxiety (n = 20) participants, and the groups were compared to mean EDA level and electrodermal reactions frequency (EDR).
The ASD group had a significantly blunted mean EDA response to the anxiety tasks (p < 0.004). The EDR response to all tasks, except response inhibition, was also blunted in the ASD group (p < 0.04). For this group, EDR frequency during the anxiety and social cognition tasks was negatively correlated with behavioral scores in the domains that were probed by each task (p < 0.002). The high-anxiety ASD group showed significantly decreased mean EDA compared to both the low-anxiety ASD group (p = 0.02) and the typically developing control group (p = 0.04). The high-anxiety ASD group also had significantly more severe symptoms than the low-anxiety ASD group on domains related to anxiety, attention, rule breaking, aggression, obsessions and compulsions, and depression.
Our results suggest atypical autonomic function in children with ASD, specifically with respect to sympathetic activity. Moreover, anxiety symptomatology defined subgroups with distinct physiological and behavioral profiles. Overall, the results add to the body of literature supporting autonomic dysfunction in ASD and highlight the role of anxiety and autonomic features in explaining the variability in the autism spectrum.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）与自主神经异常有关，尽管这些差异的本质在很大程度上仍不清楚。此外，现有文献表明ASD患者的自主神经功能存在很大差异，这促使人们有必要研究是否存在具有更同质自主神经特征的亚组。
作为参与者，在典型发育儿童（n = 33）和患有ASD的儿童（n = 38）执行引发焦虑、注意力、反应抑制和社会认知过程的任务时，测量了自主神经活动的非侵入性生理指标——皮肤电活动（EDA）。将ASD组分为低焦虑（n = 18）和高焦虑（n = 20）参与者，并比较各组的平均EDA水平和皮肤电反应频率（EDR）。
ASD组对焦虑任务的平均EDA反应明显减弱（p < 0.004）。ASD组对除反应抑制外的所有任务的EDR反应也减弱（p < 0.04）。对于该组，焦虑和社会认知任务期间的EDR频率与每个任务所探究领域的行为评分呈负相关（p < 0.002）。与低焦虑ASD组（p = 0.02）和典型发育对照组（p = 0.04）相比，高焦虑ASD组的平均EDA显著降低。在与焦虑、注意力、违反规则、攻击、强迫观念和强迫行为以及抑郁相关的领域，高焦虑ASD组的症状也比低焦虑ASD组严重得多。
我们的结果表明ASD儿童存在非典型自主神经功能，特别是在交感神经活动方面。此外，焦虑症状定义了具有不同生理和行为特征的亚组。总体而言，这些结果增加了支持ASD自主神经功能障碍的文献，并强调了焦虑和自主神经特征在解释自闭症谱系变异性方面的作用。
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