Schedule of Events | Symposia

ERP and behavioral responses to social touch among autistic and non-autistic young adults

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

David Anaki¹ (david.anaki@biu.ac.il), Meyrav Gaziel-Gutman¹, Nira Mashal¹; ¹Bar-Ilan University

Although much has been written on the association between touch hypersensitivity and the social functioning of autistic individuals (Ludlow et al., 2015; Lundqvist, 2014; Wilhelm et al., 2001), no research has examined the neural responses to social touch stimuli and their association with this group's touch sensory dysregulation. In the current study, we explored, in 25 young autistic adults and 29 non-autistic adults, the earlier P1 and late positive potential (LPP) responses, two event-related potential components that reflect early- and late-directed attention to non/non-human touch/no-touch images. Results showed, among the non-autistic group, increased LPP responses to visualized human stimuli (e.g., two people touching or not touching each other) than non-human stimuli (e.g., two socks touching or not touching each other). In contrast, LPP responses in the autistic group did not differ between human and non-human stimuli. In addition, LPP responses to social touch images were negatively associated with touch avoidance in autistic participants. These findings contribute to prior evidence exploring the neural mechanism underlying social cognition in autism, providing a broader perspective regarding its relationship with sensory processing abnormalities.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotional responding