Associations between physiological and neural measures of sensory reactivity in youth with autism

Background Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) commonly show sensory over-responsivity (SOR), an impairing condition related to over-reactive brain and behavioral responses to aversive stimuli. While individuals with ASD often show atypically high physiological arousal, it is unclear how this relates to sensory reactivity. We therefore investigated how physiological arousal relates to brain and behavioral indices of SOR, to inform understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying SOR and to determine whether physiological measures are associated with SOR-related brain responses. Methods Youth aged 8-18 (49 ASD; 30 age- and performance-IQ-matched typically developing (TD)) experienced mildly aversive tactile and auditory stimuli first during functional magnetic resonance imaging (N = 41 ASD, 26 TD) and then during skin conductance (SCR) (N = 48 ASD, 28 TD) and heart rate (HR) measurements (N = 48 ASD, 30 TD). Parents reported on their children's SOR severity. Results Autism Spectrum Disorder youth overall displayed greater SCR to aversive sensory stimulation than TD youth and greater baseline HR. Within ASD, higher SOR was associated with higher mean HR across all stimuli after controlling for baseline HR. Furthermore, the ASD group overall, and the ASD-high-SOR group in particular, showed reduced HR deceleration/greater acceleration to sensory stimulation compared to the TD group. Both SCR and HR were associated with brain responses to sensory stimulation in regions previously associated with SOR and sensory regulation. Conclusions Autism Spectrum Disorder youth displayed heightened physiological arousal to mildly aversive sensory stimulation, with HR responses in particular showing associations with brain and behavioral measures of SOR. These results have implications for using psychophysiological measures to assess SOR, particularly in individuals with ASD who cannot undergo MRI.