Department of Radiology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary Alberta Children's Hospital, Office B4-512 28 Oki Drive NW, T3B 6A8, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Owerko Centre, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 Jul;53(7):2891-2904. doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05570-7. Epub 2022 Apr 28.
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.
我们评估了自闭症儿童（3-6 岁）在触觉感知方面的不同方面。自闭症儿童和神经典型儿童完成了振动触觉任务，评估反应时间、幅度辨别（顺序和同时）和时间辨别（时间顺序判断和持续时间辨别）。自闭症儿童的反应时间延长且更不稳定，这表明感知运动处理速度较慢和/或注意力更分散。与神经典型儿童相比，自闭症儿童的幅度辨别和时间顺序判断阈值也更高。触觉感知指标与父母报告的社交或触觉敏感度无关。在幼儿期就出现了改变的触觉行为反应，可以进行量化，但与敏感度分离。这意味着这些措施是互补的，但不一定是自闭症中异常触觉感知的相关现象。
