Habituation of auditory responses in young autistic and neurotypical children.
Patrick Dwyer, Zachary J Williams, Svjetlana Vukusic and 2 others
PMID 37688470WHAT IT FOUND
Young autistic children showed less brain habituation to repeated sounds than neurotypical peers, but this neural difference did not match caregiver-reported sound sensitivity.
Clinicians should not assume these lab findings explain a child's everyday noise distress.
Key findings
01Habituation of the N2 brain response was significantly greater in typically-developing children than in autistic children.
02There was no significant association between neural habituation and caregiver-reported loudness discomfort or cognitive ability in the autistic group.
03Brain responses to the loudest sounds (80 dB) habituated less than responses to softer sounds in the P1 window.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
A large number of autistic children (41% of those attempted) were excluded due to noisy data or insufficient trials, so the final group may not represent all autistic children. The study did not measure hearing thresholds, so undetected hearing loss could have influenced the results. The videos children watched were different for each participant, introducing uncontrolled visual and auditory variables. Caregiver reports of sensory behavior may not accurately reflect a child's internal sensory experience, as some children mask their distress.
Declared interests
One author has received consulting fees from Roche and is a Family Partner of an Autism Speaks site. Two authors are members of an AIR-P review board. The study was supported by NIH and non-US government grants.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this brain difference causes a child's noise sensitivity. The study found no link between the neural habituation results and the caregivers' reports of the child's everyday sound tolerance.