Don't touch me! autistic traits modulate early and late ERP components during visual perception of social touch

Abstract

Although individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impaired responses to interpersonal touch, the underlying neural correlates remain largely unknown. Here, we examined the neural correlates that underlie interpersonal touch perception in individuals with either high or low autistic traits. Fifty-three participants were classified as having either high or low autistic traits based on their performance on the autism quotient (AQ) questionnaire. We hypothesized that individuals with high AQ scores would have relatively high touch hypervigilance, reflected as earlier P1 and stronger late positive potential (LPP) responses, two components of event-related potentials that serve as electrophysiological markers of anxiety bias. We recorded each participant's electroencephalography activity during presentation of images depicting human touch, object touch, and non-touch control images. Consistent with our hypothesis, AQ scores were positively correlated with social touch aversion. Moreover, participants with high AQ scores had earlier P1 and stronger LPP responses when presented with human touch compared to the control images. Importantly, a regression model revealed that earlier P1 and larger LPP amplitude measured during social touch observation can accurately predict higher autistic trait levels. Taken together, these findings indicate that individuals with high levels of autistic traits may have a hypervigilant response to observed social touch. Autism Res 2017, 0: 000-000. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1141-1154. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Overlaps and distinctions between attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder in young adulthood: Systematic review and guiding framework for EEG-imaging research

“…For ASD at age 25, N1 amplitude was correlated with a behavioural measure of interpersonal distance, suggesting that atypical levels of sensory sensitivity can explain some of the ASD-linked difficulties in social domains. Another study found that pictures of interpersonal touch in the high ASD trait group at age 23, relative to the low trait group, elicited equivalent P1 amplitude but larger LPP amplitude, which may index hypervigilance to social touch in ASD particularly at later stages of processing (Peled-Avron and Shamay-Tsoory, 2017) (Table 1A).…”

A touching Sight: EEG/ERP correlates for the vicarious processing of affectionate touch

“…Additionally, brush stroking with CT velocity elicits an LPP with a very long latency as would be expected by the slow transmission of CT input (Ackerley et al, 2013). Last, observing touching body parts boosts the LPP relative to a no-touch control (Peled-Avron & Shamay-Tsoory, 2017). The present results extend these findings to the vicarious perception of affectionate touch in social scenes.…”

Autistic traits modulate cortical responses to affective but not discriminative touch

“…For example, both the gender of the person delivering the touch (Gazzola et al, ) and the visual appearance of the touched surface (Keizer et al, ) can affect ratings of touch pleasantness as well as responses in affective brain regions such at the OFC. Given that the social context of a sensory experience is likely to affect those with low and high levels of autistic traits differently (Bölte, Poustka, & Constantino, ; Lassalle & Itier, ; Peled‐Avron & Shamay‐Tsoory, ), future research should investigate whether these groups show differential neural responses to robot versus experimenter delivered touch.…”