Brief Report: Reduced Heart Rate Variability in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
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BRIEF REPORT
Brief Report: Reduced Heart Rate Variability in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Catharine Lory1 · Girija Kadlaskar2 · Rebecca McNally Keehn3 · Alexander L. Francis2 · Brandon Keehn2,4
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which can be indexed by heart rate variability (HRV), has been posited to contribute to core features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the relationship between ASD and HRV remains uncertain. We assessed tonic and phasic HRV of 21 children with ASD and 21 age- and IQ-matched typically developing (TD) children and examined (1) group differences in HRV and (2) associations between HRV and ASD symptomatology. Children with ASD showed significantly lower tonic HRV, but similar phasic HRV compared to TD children. Additionally, reduced tonic HRV was associated with atypical attentional responsivity in ASD. Our findings suggest ANS dysregulation is present in ASD and may contribute to atypical attentional responses to sensory stimulation. Keywords Autism spectrum disorder · Heart rate variability · ECG · Autonomic arousal
Introduction Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by social communication impairments, as well as the presence of atypical restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRB; American Psychiatric Association 2013). It has been proposed that these core features of ASD can be explained, in part, by dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which may result in atypical reactivity to external stimuli (Porges 2005). Behavioral manifestations of this dysregulation can include weaknesses in emotion recognition and regulation of social-emotional responses (Bal et al. 2010; Chang et al. 2012; Porges 2005) and difficulties in tolerating environmental changes resulting in stereotyped and ritualistic behavior (Bachevalier and Loveland 2006). Although ANS responsivity to environmental stressors has been explored widely, the * Catharine Lory [email protected] 1
Department of Educational Studies, Purdue University, 100 N University Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
2
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
3
Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
4
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
relation between physiological mechanisms and ASD symptoms has not been sufficiently investigated (Benevides and Lane 2015; Bujnakova et al. 2016). Therefore, identifying differences in physiological responses in individuals with and without ASD may offer insight into the mechanisms that may contribute to the development of the core phenotypic features of ASD. The ANS is a division of the peripheral nervous system, which regulates the functioning of internal organs and works to maintain homeostasis, and includes the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. Generally, parasympathetic activation of the ANS regu
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