Haggarty, CJ, Moore, DJ, Trotter, PD, Hagan, R, McGlone, FP and Walker, SC (2021) Vicarious ratings of social touch the effect of age and autistic traits. Scientific Reports, 11 (1). ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

Tactile sensitivities are common in Autism Spectrum Conditions (autism). Psychophysically, slow, gentle stroking touch is typically rated as more pleasant than faster or slower touch. Vicarious ratings of social touch results in a similar pattern of velocity dependent hedonic ratings as directly felt touch. Here we investigated whether adults and children's vicarious ratings vary according to autism diagnosis and self-reported autistic traits. Adults' scoring high on the AQ rated stroking touch on the palm as less pleasant than a Low AQ group. However, in contrast to our hypothesis, we did not find any effect of autism diagnosis on children's touch ratings despite parental reports highlighting significant somatosensory sensitivities. These results are discussed in terms of underpinning sensory and cognitive factors.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Divisions:	Psychology (from Sep 2019)
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
Related URLs:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34588542
Date Deposited:	05 Oct 2021 08:25
Last Modified:	05 Oct 2021 08:30
DOI or ID number:	10.1038/s41598-021-98802-2
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/15598

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