Emotional Arousal During Social Stress in Young Adults With Autism: Insights From Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability and Self-Report.
Renee R Dijkhuis, Tim Ziermans, Sophie van Rijn and 2 others
PMID 30945093WHAT IT FOUND
During a stressful webcam talk, heart rate rose similarly in students with autism and typically developing students, but students with autism showed less change in heart rhythm variability.
Their self-reported emotions did not differ.
Key findings
01Heart rate increased from baseline to the presentation phase, but the increase did not differ between the ASD and TD groups.
02Heart rate variability decreased from baseline to presentation in the TD group, while it did not change in the ASD group.
03Self-reported emotional awareness during the presentation did not differ between the ASD and TD groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The ASD group was older and had higher estimated IQ than the TD group, so these differences may have influenced the results. Nineteen participants in the ASD group were taking medications that can affect heart rate or heart rate variability; two TD participants reporting psychotropic medication use were removed. Several participants dropped out or were excluded, and the number analysed differed across gaze, heart rate, and emotion outcomes. This was a single laboratory social stress task, not a treatment study, so it cannot show that any therapy works. Physical exercise and body mass index were not controlled, although they can influence heart rate variability.
Declared interests
The only funding declaration supplied is that the funder named is Jados.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the heart-rate-variability difference as proof that autism causes a treatable physiological problem. This was a single laboratory comparison, no intervention was tested, and heart rate and self-reported emotions did not differ between groups.