Sensory Processing in Autism: A Review of Neurophysiologic Findings

By Elysa J. Marco, Leighton B. N. Hinkley, Susanna S. Hill, Srikantan S. Nagarajan. Pediatric Research, 2011

946 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Atypical sensory-based behaviors are a ubiquitous feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). In this article, we review the neural underpinnings of sensory processing in autism by reviewing the literature on neurophysiological responses to auditory, tactile, and visual stimuli in autistic individuals. We review studies of unimodal sensory processing and multisensory integration that use a variety of neuroimaging techniques, including electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and functional MRI. We then explore the impact of covert and overt attention on sensory processing. With additional characterization, neurophysiologic profiles of sensory processing in ASD may serve as valuable biomarkers for diagnosis and monitoring of therapeutic interventions for autism and reveal potential strategies and target brain regions for therapeutic interventions.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Mental health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/718bb5362dc0b3bbc89216f73ee46ece36c3e775

Citations in the corpus

• Salience Network–Based Classification and Prediction of Symptom Severity in Children With Autism (2013, neutral): “Dyspraxia and other impairments of motor control have also been reported,(75) as well as sensory processing abnormalities.(76,77) We observed hyperconnectivity across brain systems supporting several cognitive functions known to be impaired in the complex autistic phenotype.”
• An aberrant precision account of autism (2014, neutral): “Though attempts to synthesize the MMN literature in autism reveal many inconsistencies (Marco et al., 2011), this may be”