Increased Sensory Processing Atypicalities in Parents of Multiplex ASD Families Versus Typically Developing and Simplex ASD Families

Chelsea Donaldson*, Johannes E A Stauder, Franc C L Donkers

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that sensory processing atypicalities may share genetic influences with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To further investigate this, the adolescent/adult sensory profile (AASP) questionnaire was distributed to 85 parents of typically developing children (P-TD), 121 parents from simplex ASD families (SPX), and 54 parents from multiplex ASD families (MPX). After controlling for gender and presence of mental disorders, results showed that MPX parents significantly differed from P-TD parents in all four subscales of the AASP. Differences between SPX and MPX parents reached significance in the Sensory Sensitivity subscale and also in subsequent modality-specific analyses in the auditory and visual domains. Our finding that parents with high genetic liability for ASD (i.e., MPX) had more sensory processing atypicalities than parents with low (i.e., SPX) or no (i.e., P-TD) ASD genetic liability suggests that sensory processing atypicalities may contribute to the genetic susceptibility for ASD.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)535-548
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Volume47
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2017

Keywords

  • Autism spectrum disorder
  • Sensory processing
  • Simplex
  • Multiplex
  • Hypersensitivity
  • Hyposensitivity
  • Broader autism phenotype
  • BROADER AUTISM PHENOTYPE
  • SPECTRUM DISORDER
  • SEX-DIFFERENCES
  • YOUNG-CHILDREN
  • CANDIDATE GENE
  • PATTERNS
  • PROFILE
  • TRAITS
  • ADULTS
  • ABNORMALITIES

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