Poster No:
362
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Yi-Ling Chien1, Susan Shur-Fen Gau1
Institutions:
1National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
First Author:
Co-Author:
Introduction:
Sensory symptoms are common in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and are associated with social deficits in ASD. Sensory sensitivity can influence selective attention to social stimuli, decoding intentions, social reciprocity, and adherence to social norms of behavior. Whether and how sensory symptoms mediate social symptoms and social brain network during the development is unclear. This study aims to investigate how sensory symptoms mediate social deficits and the relationship between social brain network and social deficits in a longitudinal ASD sample.
Methods:
This study recruited 248 individuals with ASD (mean age 10.7 years old, male 87%) and 120 typically developing controls (TDC, mean age 11.4 years, male 75%). The participants were followed for 7 years in ASD in average and 5 years in TDC. Social deficits were measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), while sensory symptoms were evaluated by sensory items in the SRS and Short Sensory Profile. A subsample of the participants underwent head MRI at two time points. We used single and multiple mediation analysis to examine whether sensory symptoms can mediate social development. We also examine whether sensory symptoms can mediate the prediction of the social brain structures towards social deficits at follow-up.
Results:
We found that sensory symptoms were significantly correlated with social deficits at each cross-sectional time point. Besides, we found that sensory symptoms at either Time 1 or Time 2 significantly predict social deficits at Time 2, and significantly mediate social deficits from Time 1 to Time 2. In neuroimage analysis, we also found that sensory symptoms may mediate the relationship between some social brain structures at Time 1 and social deficits at Time 2, including the gray matter volume of the right posterior middle cingulate cortex, right lateral fissure (posterior part), left inferior parietal cortex (angular part and supramarginal part), left precuneus, right parieto-occipital cortex, and left superior occipital cortex.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggested that sensory symptoms may mediate the changes in social deficits behaviorally and the relationship between gray matter volume of social brain structures and social deficits at follow-up. These findings suggest that clinical remediation on sensory symptoms might potentially help improvement on social functioning, that warrants further investigation.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Neurodevelopmental/ Early Life (eg. ADHD, autism) 1
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Social Neuroscience Other
Neuroanatomy, Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission:
Cortical Anatomy and Brain Mapping
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
Anatomical MRI
Perception, Attention and Motor Behavior:
Perception: Multisensory and Crossmodal 2
Keywords:
Autism
Perception
Social Interactions
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
Crasta JE, Green OJ, Gavin WJ, Davies PL. The Relationship Between Attention, Sensory Processing, and Social Responsiveness Among Adults on the Autism Spectrum. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorder. 2009; 3(4): 959–966. doi: 10.1016/j.rasd.2009.05.003