People with autism spectrum disorder show neural responses of anxiety on seeing social touch
The autism spectrum is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties in creating, understanding, and maintaining social relationships . Some 70-80 percent of people with ASD suffer from hypersensitivity or undersensitivity to neural stimulation through the various senses, including sight, touch, and taste. Some parents of children with ASD report that their children stiffen when touched, try to avoid touch, and prefer to be touched on their own terms. Until now, however, researchers did not understand exactly what causes this sensitivity, and above all -- how people with ASD feel when they are exposed to touch. The present study, published in the journal Autism Research , was authored by Prof. Simone Shamay-Tsoory and doctorate student Leehe Peled-Avron from the Department of Psychology at the University of Haifa. The researchers sought to examine the differences in the neural response to social interaction, including human touch, between people with ASD and people ...