Nicolardi Valentina, Fanizza Isabella, Accogli Giuseppe, Scoditti Sara, Trabacca Antonio
Scientific Institute IRCCS "E. Medea", Bosisio Parini, LC, Italy.
Associazione "La Nostra Famiglia" - IRCCS "E. Medea" - Scientific Hospital for Neurorehabilitation - Unit for Severe Disabilities in Developmental Age and Young Adults (Developmental Neurology and Neurorehabilitation), Brindisi, Italy.
Front Neurosci. 2025 May 1;19:1543538. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1543538. eCollection 2025.
Hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory input is a diagnostic criterion for autism spectrum disorder; however, it is still not fully characterized, despite its relevance to patients' quality of life. When considering neurodevelopment, sensory reactivity in autism is often assessed through parental reports, with only a few pieces of evidence acquired using standardized protocols. Quantitative sensory testing (QST) is a standardized protocol used to quantify sensory function by assessing perceptive and pain thresholds with calibrated sensory stimuli. To date, only a few studies have used QST to investigate sensory reactivity in autism, with only one taking into account adolescents and none including children in the sample.
We aimed to study pain perception and in children diagnosed with autism using the QST protocol. Moreover, we sought to measure central reactivity to painful stimuli by recording electroencephalographic (EEG) responses to painful thermal stimuli to explore the relationship between subjective reactivity (i.e., reactions to sensory stimuli) and central processing of sensory stimuli (i.e., EEG responses). Finally, we aimed to explore the relationship between parents' reports, subjective reports, and EEG responses.
This study will help to expand our previous knowledge concerning the sensory profile of children and adolescents with autism. Deepening our understanding of the relationship between perceptive thresholds in children with autism and the reactivity of the central nervous system, could help us understand the causal mechanism of the perceptual differences observed in autism.
NCT06659731.
对感觉输入的反应过度或不足是自闭症谱系障碍的诊断标准之一；然而，尽管其与患者的生活质量相关，但仍未得到充分表征。在考虑神经发育时，自闭症患者的感觉反应性通常通过家长报告进行评估，仅有少量证据是使用标准化方案获得的。定量感觉测试（QST）是一种标准化方案，通过使用校准的感觉刺激评估感知阈值和疼痛阈值来量化感觉功能。迄今为止，仅有少数研究使用QST来调查自闭症患者的感觉反应性，其中只有一项研究纳入了青少年，且样本中均未包括儿童。
我们旨在使用QST方案研究自闭症儿童的疼痛感知。此外，我们试图通过记录对疼痛热刺激的脑电图（EEG）反应来测量对疼痛刺激的中枢反应性，以探索主观反应性（即对感觉刺激的反应）与感觉刺激的中枢处理（即EEG反应）之间的关系。最后，我们旨在探索家长报告、主观报告和EEG反应之间的关系。
本研究将有助于扩展我们之前关于自闭症儿童和青少年感觉特征的知识。加深我们对自闭症儿童感知阈值与中枢神经系统反应性之间关系的理解，可能有助于我们理解自闭症中观察到的感知差异的因果机制。
NCT06659731。
