Sensory over-responsivity and social cognition in ASD: Effects of aversive sensory stimuli and attentional modulation on neural responses to social cues
Open accessAbstract
Sensory over-responsivity (SOR) is a common condition in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) that is associated with greater social impairment. However, the mechanisms through which sensory stimuli may affect social functioning are not well understood. This study used fMRI to examine brain activity while interpreting communicative intent in 15 high-functioning youth with ASD and 16 age- and IQ-matched typically-developing (TD) controls. Participants completed the task with and without a tactile sensory distracter, and with and without instructions directing their attention to relevant social cues. When completing the task in the presence of the sensory distracter, TD youth showed increased activity in auditory language and frontal regions whereas ASD youth showed decreased activation in these areas. Instructions mitigated this effect such that ASD youth did not decrease activation during tactile stimulation; instead, the ASD group showed increased medial prefrontal activity. SOR severity modulated the effect of the tactile stimulus on social processing. Results demonstrate for the first time a neural mechanism through which sensory stimuli cause disruption of social cognition, and that attentional modulation can restore neural processing of social cues through prefrontal regulation. Findings have implications for novel, integrative interventions that incorporate attentional directives to target both sensory and social symptoms.
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Children with high sensory over-responsivity show increased resting-state functional connectivity between salience network nodes and brain regions implicated in primary sensory processing and attention.
“Children with high sensory over-responsivity showed reduced ability to maintain habituation in the amygdala (Green et al. 2019), together with increased resting-state functional connectivity between salience network nodes and brain regions implicated in primary sensory processing and attention (Green et al. 2018).”
From Autism Spectrum Disorder and auditory sensory alterations: a systematic review on the integrity of cognitive and neuronal functions related to auditory processing (2023) · cites this paper as Green et al. 2018
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- Authors
- Green, S. A., Hernandez, L. M., Bowman, H. C., Bookheimer, S. Y., & Dapretto, M.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Corresponding author
- Green, Shulamite A.
- Venue
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-01
- Volume
- 29
- Pages
- 127-139
- ISSN
- 1878-9293 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5990012
- OpenAlex
- W2591156875
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 3.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P50 HD055786)
- National Institute of Mental Health (1 R01 HD065280-01)
- Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (345389)
- National Institute of Health National Research Service Award (F32MH105167-01)
- National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) (RR12169, RR13642, RR00865)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Keywords
- sensory hypersensitivity, autism spectrum disorder, social cognition, attentional modulation, medial prefrontal cortex, social processing
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Adolescent, Attention, Auditory Cortex, Cues, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Social Behavior, Touch, Prefrontal Cortex, Young Adult
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