Congratulations to Manasa Acharya, a Junior Microbiology Major and volunteer at the Bernier Lab, for her outstanding presentation at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium on May 19, 2017!

Manasa’s presented her poster titled “Quantative Analysis of Audiotry Processing in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” For the PDF of Manasa’s poster follow this link: Manasa Poster_2017!

SUMMARY: Atypical sensory behaviors have only recently been included as an explicit symptom of DSM-5 Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), despite a considerable history of anecdotal evidence. As a result, sensory behaviors are not well characterized in ASD research. In the current study, we aim to fill a gap in the literature by specifically investigating auditory processing in 143 children with ASD and/or a likely gene disrupting mutation (LGDM) associated with ASD. Participants’ parents completed the Sensory Profile Caregiver Questionnaire about their child and psychiatric symptoms were assessed via a comprehensive evaluation with a licensed clinical psychologist. We hypothesized that responses on the Sensory Profile would reflect either hypo- or hyper-sensitivity to auditory stimuli. We predicted that extreme hypo- or hyper-auditory responses would reflect separate deficits, rather than a continuum of auditory sensitivity. We also predicted that we would see unique auditory response profiles associated with LGDMs in particular gene groups. Our results will be discussed with regard to current theories and information about sensory abnormalities in children with ASD. The results and findings from this study could be used to help lay a foundation regarding sensory markers and auditory processing deficiencies in children with ASD, a topic that is fairly new and has not been thoroughly investigated.