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Sensory Processing in Low-Functioning Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Distinct Sensory Profiles and Their Relationships with Behavioral Dysfunction

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Abstract

Sensory processing abnormalities are relatively universal in individuals with autism spectrum disorder, and can be very disabling. Surprisingly, very few studies have investigated these abnormalities in low-functioning adults with autism. The goals of the present study were (a) to characterize distinct profiles of sensory dysfunction, and (b) to understand how sensory dysfunction relates to behavioral disorders in this population. Data were collected for a representative sample of inpatients in autism care centers (N = 148) and a non-clinical control group. Results demonstrated that sensory dysfunction (a) is highly prevalent in low-functioning adults with ASD and differentiates at least four sub-profiles of patients, and (b) predicts specific patterns of behavioral disorders. Implications for care are discussed.

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Notes

  1. This sample size is in line with past research analyzing subprofiles of sensory dysfunction in participants with ASD: not counting the national survey reported by Ausderau et al. 2014, the average sample size was N = 99 in the studies cited here (range = 22–170; Baker et al. 2008; Baranek et al. 1997a; Ben-Sasson et al. 2008; Degenne-Richard 2014; Lane et al. 2010, 2011; Liss et al. 2006). For the relationship between sensory dysfunction and behavioral disorders, most effect sizes reported in prior studies ranged between R² = 0.05 and R² = 0.20 (Ben-Sasson et al. 2008; Lane et al. 2010; Liss et al. 2006); a power analysis indicated that a sample size of N = 152 was required to detect an effect size of R² = 0.05 with 0.80 power.

  2. The main purpose of the control group was to obtain a baseline for the analysis of sensory sub-profiles: for example, it was of interest to characterize ASD patients as “over-sensitive” or “under-sensitive” when compared to a neutral reference point. For this reason, a non-clinical control group was most appropriate to the purpose of this study. Past studies have often based analyses of sensory profiles on non-clinical normative data (e.g. Lane et al. 2010).

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Acknowledgments

The authors express their thanks to everyone who contributed to this study, including the heads of the inpatient care centers, the health and social workers who completed the protocol, the families of patients with ASD, and participants in the control sample.

Author Contributions

CG reviewed the literature, analyzed and interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript; LL participated in the design and coordination of the study and performed the data collection; MB participated in the design, supervised the study and helped to draft the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Rennes 2, CRPCC EA 1285, 35000, Rennes, France

    Corentin Gonthier

  2. Université Savoie Mont Blanc, LPNC UMR CNRS 5105, 73000, Chambéry, France

    Lucie Longuépée & Martine Bouvard

Authors
  1. Corentin Gonthier
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  2. Lucie Longuépée
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  3. Martine Bouvard
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Correspondence to Corentin Gonthier.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by the research ethics committee of the University of Savoy, in compliance with French regulations (approval date: January 29 2012). All procedures were in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

All relevant information about the purpose and the conditions of the study was communicated to the heads of the care centers, to the participating health and social workers, and to the families of the participants. Informed consent was provided by the legal guardians of all participants with autism prior to their inclusion in the study. The research was purely non-interventional: for adults with ASD, the questionnaires used the other-report method, and the patients themselves were never approached during the course of the study. The data were fully anonymized, and no information allowing the identification of participants was collected at any point.

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Gonthier, C., Longuépée, L. & Bouvard, M. Sensory Processing in Low-Functioning Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Distinct Sensory Profiles and Their Relationships with Behavioral Dysfunction. J Autism Dev Disord 46, 3078–3089 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2850-1

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