Faculty

Social Sciences

Supervisor Name

Ryan Stevenson

Keywords

Autism Spectrum Disorder, Acoustic Startle Response, Sensory Filtering, Sensory Processing, Children

Description

Sensory filtering is the process of separating and distilling relevant sensory information from irrelevant, which in turn greatly reduces the quantity of sensory information that is fully processed and leads to significant increases in efficiency. Atypical sensory filtering can result in sensory hypo- or hypersensitivity — atypical sensory filtering and hypo/hypersensitivity have been observed in people with autism. Atypical sensory filtering contributes to canonical symptoms in Autism.

Sensory filtering can be measured in a few different ways, one of which is the Acoustic Startle Response (ASR). ASR is a reflexively produced muscular reaction to sudden auditory stimuli.

Our study aims to manipulate characteristics of auditory stimuli (acoustic reactivity, PPI, and habituation) and observe their subsequent effects on the startle response. Furthermore, observe potential differences in the startle response after these manipulations between ASD and neurotypical children. Differences between these two groups has been observed in prior literature, such as Takahashi et al.'s papers in 2014 and 2016, but results have been mixed.

Our study hopes to provide more clarity to these mixed findings, through hypothesising that autistic participants will display increased startle compared to neurotypical children under various manipulation's. This research may provide further evidence of sensory filtering differences in ASD, alongside gaining a greater understanding of the underpinnings of symptomology.

Acknowledgements

Thank you so much to Dr. Stevenson, Ala'a, and everyone else at the Sensory Perception Research lab for all of your help with this research! I'd also like to thank the Western USRI program and the Faculty of Social Science for their support.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Document Type

Poster

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Auditory Sensory Filtering and Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Sensory filtering is the process of separating and distilling relevant sensory information from irrelevant, which in turn greatly reduces the quantity of sensory information that is fully processed and leads to significant increases in efficiency. Atypical sensory filtering can result in sensory hypo- or hypersensitivity — atypical sensory filtering and hypo/hypersensitivity have been observed in people with autism. Atypical sensory filtering contributes to canonical symptoms in Autism.

Sensory filtering can be measured in a few different ways, one of which is the Acoustic Startle Response (ASR). ASR is a reflexively produced muscular reaction to sudden auditory stimuli.

Our study aims to manipulate characteristics of auditory stimuli (acoustic reactivity, PPI, and habituation) and observe their subsequent effects on the startle response. Furthermore, observe potential differences in the startle response after these manipulations between ASD and neurotypical children. Differences between these two groups has been observed in prior literature, such as Takahashi et al.'s papers in 2014 and 2016, but results have been mixed.

Our study hopes to provide more clarity to these mixed findings, through hypothesising that autistic participants will display increased startle compared to neurotypical children under various manipulation's. This research may provide further evidence of sensory filtering differences in ASD, alongside gaining a greater understanding of the underpinnings of symptomology.

 

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