PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Sensory symptoms are a major source of distress for many autistic people, causing anxiety, stress, and avoidance. Sensory problems are thought to be passed on genetically together with other autistic characteristics, such as social preferences. This means that people who report cognitive rigidity and autistic-like social function are more likely to suffer from sensory issues. We do not know what role the individual senses, such as vision, hearing, smell, or touch, play in this relationship, because sensory processing is generally measured with questionnaires that target general, multisensory issues. This study aimed to investigate the individual importance of the different senses (vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste, balance, and proprioception) in the correlation with autistic traits. To ensure the results were replicable, we repeated the experiment in two large groups of adults. The first group contained 40% autistic participants, whereas the second group resembled the general population. We found that problems with auditory processing were more strongly predictive of general autistic characteristics than were problems with the other senses. Problems with touch were specifically related to differences in social interaction, such as avoiding social settings. We also found a specific relationship between proprioceptive differences and autistic-like communication preferences. The sensory questionnaire had limited reliability, so our results may underestimate the contribution of some senses. With that reservation in mind, we conclude that auditory differences are dominant over other modalities in predicting genetically based autistic traits and may therefore be of special interest for further genetic and neurobiological studies.
摘要：
未经证实：感官症状是许多自闭症患者痛苦的主要来源，引起焦虑，压力，和回避。感官问题被认为与其他自闭症特征一起遗传，比如社会偏好。这意味着报告认知僵化和自闭症样社会功能的人更有可能患有感官问题。我们不知道个人的感觉是什么角色，比如视觉，听力,气味,或触摸，在这种关系中玩耍，因为感官加工通常是用针对一般的问卷来衡量的，多感官问题。本研究旨在调查不同感官(视觉，听力,触摸,气味,味道,balance,和本体感受)与自闭症特征的相关性。为了确保结果是可复制的，我们在两大组成年人中重复了这个实验。第一组有40%的自闭症患者，而第二组类似于一般人群。我们发现，听觉处理的问题比其他感官的问题更能强烈地预测一般自闭症特征。触摸问题与社交互动的差异特别相关，比如避免社会环境。我们还发现了本体感受差异与自闭症样交流偏好之间的特定关系。感官问卷的可靠性有限，所以我们的结果可能低估了某些感官的贡献。考虑到这个保留，我们得出的结论是，听觉差异在预测基于遗传的自闭症特征方面比其他模式更占优势，因此可能对进一步的遗传和神经生物学研究特别感兴趣。
