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Electrodermal Variability and Symptom Severity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders volume 47, pages 1062–1072 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Associations between variability in sympathetic nervous system arousal and individual differences in symptom severity were examined for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Thirty-four families participated in a laboratory visit that included continuous measurement of electrodermal activity (EDA) during a battery of naturalistic and structured parent–child, child alone, and direct testing tasks. Multiple indices of EDA were considered. Greater variability in EDA was associated with higher levels of ASD symptoms, with findings generally consistent across tasks. Intellectual functioning did not moderate the relation between EDA and ASD symptoms. Sympathetic arousal tendencies may represent an important individual difference factor for this population. Future directions and conceptualizations of EDA are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Data cleaning procedures included visual inspection of NSCRs as well as implementation of procedures to detect extreme scores. The wrist sensors did not tend to indicate very high EDA levels (e.g. >60 us) or positive spikes that occurred more rapidly than physiological processes might induce (e.g. >10–30 us/3 s). Only a single 9 s artifact was observed in the dataset, which involved both high EDA and a rapid rise greater than 10–30 us/3 s. To address the possibility of the sensors momentarily losing connection and mimicking an NSCR upon re-establishing contact, we identified EDA-level decreases of both 1 SD or more and 0.5 SD (based on a particular child’s mean EDA) over the course of 3 s. Both types of decreases were infrequent, and corrected data that excluded NSCRs preceded by an identified drop were virtually identical to the original data. For example, a near perfect correlation was observed between uncorrected and corrected NSCR scores during the SB5, the longest sampling period, r = .999).

  2. Additional HLM analyses were performed to control for mean-level movement data in examining the association between EDA and ASD symptom severity. The pattern and significance of findings for EDA variability and for NSCRs in relation to the ADOS-2 comparison score remained unchanged. Given sample size considerations, the uncontrolled models are presented.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by an intramural faculty grant given to Jason K. Baker, as well as additional funds awarded to Rachel M. Fenning and Jason K. Baker by the California State University, Fullerton. Portions of these data were presented at the 2014 Convention of the American Psychological Association.

Author Contributions

RF and JB conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed statistical analyses and data interpretation, and drafted the manuscript; BB participated in the design and interpretation of the data, performed certain statistical analyses, and drafted portions of the manuscript; SE participated in the design and interpretation of the data and contributed text to the manuscript; MH and JM participated in the design and coordination of the study, performed aspects of the measurement, and contributed text to the manuscript;. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Studies / Center for Autism, California State University-Fullerton, 800 N. State College Blvd. EC-560, Fullerton, CA, 92831, USA

    Rachel M. Fenning, Jason K. Baker, Mariann A. Howland & Jacquelyn Moffitt

  2. University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E. BEHS 502, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112, USA

    Brian R. Baucom

  3. Auburn University, 203 Spidle Hall, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA

    Stephen A. Erath

Authors
  1. Rachel M. Fenning
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  2. Jason K. Baker
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  3. Brian R. Baucom
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  4. Stephen A. Erath
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  5. Mariann A. Howland
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  6. Jacquelyn Moffitt
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Correspondence to Rachel M. Fenning.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Fenning, R.M., Baker, J.K., Baucom, B.R. et al. Electrodermal Variability and Symptom Severity in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 1062–1072 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-3021-0

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Keywords

  • Autism spectrum disorder
  • Electrodermal activity
  • Psychophysiology
  • Autism symptomatology
  • Intellectual disability