Title Characterizing autonomic response to arousing visual-auditory multi-modal task in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Author Cavinato, L; Cardinaux, A; Jain, K; Jamal, W; Kjelgaard, M; Sinha, P; Barbieri, R
Journal Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc Publication Year/Month 2019-Jul
PMID 31946969 PMCID -N/A-

Sensory abnormalities are widespread in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, their definition is still quite subjective and vague. Here we propose a novel approach for characterization of Autonomic Nervous System responses to sensory stimulation based on electrocardiogram (ECG) assessment. In particular, we develop a preliminary study where autonomic responses of both autistic (ASD = 5) and neurotypical (NT = 5) participants have been evaluated in terms of changes in responsiveness to repeated stimuli. Autonomic control has been estimated via high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) and low-frequency HRV (LF-HRV). Results show significant differences among groups for the HRV measures (p value = 0.0158), supported by expected changes of HF (p value = 0.0079) and LF (p value = 0.0079) trends over stimulations. We thus conclude that an overall decrease in autonomic arousal can give important insights for devising new habituation metrics in NT and ASD individuals.

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