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Self-reported Pleasantness Ratings and Examiner-Coded Defensiveness in Response to Touch in Children with ASD: Effects of Stimulus Material and Bodily Location

  • Perception In Autism
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Abstract

Tactile defensiveness, characterized by behavioral hyperresponsiveness and negative emotional responses to touch, is a common manifestation of aberrant sensory processing in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities (DD). Variations in tactile defensiveness with the properties of the stimulus and the bodily site of stimulation have been addressed in adults with self-report of perceived tactile pleasantness, but not in children. We presented three materials (pleasant, unpleasant, social) at three bodily sites and measured both examiner-coded defensiveness and self-reported pleasantness from a group of children with ASD and two comparison groups (one with DD, one with typical development (TD)). The main findings were: (1) children with ASD and DD showed significantly more defensiveness reactions and lower pleasantness ratings than the TD group, with higher variability, (2) there was a double dissociation for the effects of material and bodily site of stimulation: while bodily site predicted behavioral defensiveness, material predicted pleasantness rating. Additionally, it was noted that (3) the most pleasant material and the social touch conditions best distinguished ASD and DD from TD on defensiveness, and (4) within the ASD group, social impairment and defensiveness in bodily sites associated with social touch were positively correlated, suggesting a clinically relevant distinction between social and discriminative touch in ASD.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by a Grant from NICHD (R01 HD42168) and CTSA award UL1TR000445 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. CJC’s effort is supported by NIMH (K01 MH090232). We would like to acknowledge John Bulluck for his assistance with data processing, and Jeanne Lovmo, Melissa Furlong, Heather Miller, Beth Schultz, and Amanda Lert for their assistance with recruitment and data collection.

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  1. Jill Lorenzi

    Present address: Virginia Tech Department of Psychology, Blacksburg, VA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Human Development, Vanderbilt University, 1601 23rd Ave, S, Suite 3057, Nashville, TN, 37212, USA

    Carissa J. Cascio

  2. Division of Occupational Science, Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Jill Lorenzi & Grace T. Baranek

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  1. Carissa J. Cascio
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  2. Jill Lorenzi
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  3. Grace T. Baranek
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Correspondence to Carissa J. Cascio.

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Cascio, C.J., Lorenzi, J. & Baranek, G.T. Self-reported Pleasantness Ratings and Examiner-Coded Defensiveness in Response to Touch in Children with ASD: Effects of Stimulus Material and Bodily Location. J Autism Dev Disord 46, 1528–1537 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1961-1

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