Challenging the Boundaries of the Physical Self: Distal Cues Impact Body Ownership

A multidimensional investigation of the relationship between skin-mediated somatosensory signals, emotion regulation and behavior problems in autistic children

Introduction

Autistic children may have abnormal sensory perception, emotion dysregulation and behavior problems. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the relationship between skin-mediated somatosensory signals and emotion/behavior difficulties in autistic children and adolescents, in comparison typically developing peers (TDP).

Methods

Thirty-eight autistic children and adolescents and 34 TDP completed a multidimensional assessment consisting of the measurement of somatosensory thresholds of touch, pain and temperature, a task on emotion knowledge and parent-reported questionnaires on sensory reactivity, emotion regulation and behavior.

Results

Autistic children had higher pain sensitivity, less sensory reactive behaviors and more behavior problems than their TDP. In contrast to TDP, several somatosensory thresholds of autistic children correlated with emotion regulation and behavior problems.

Discussion

Sensory dysfunction may affect the development of emotional processing and behavior in autistic children and adolescents. This knowledge can lay the foundation for future studies on co-occurring alterations in corresponding neural networks and for the implementation of early interventions, including sensory rehabilitation therapy, for promoting regulated behaviors in autistic children and adolescents.

Deficits in Sense of Body Ownership, Sensory Processing, and Temporal Perception in Schizophrenia Patients With/Without Auditory Verbal Hallucinations

It has been claimed that individuals with schizophrenia have difficulty in self-recognition and, consequently, are unable to identify the sources of their sensory perceptions or thoughts, resulting in delusions, hallucinations, and unusual experiences of body ownership. The deficits also contribute to the enhanced rubber hand illusion (RHI; a body perception illusion, induced by synchronous visual and tactile stimulation). Evidence based on RHI paradigms is emerging that auditory information can make an impact on the sense of body ownership, which relies on the process of multisensory inputs and integration. Hence, we assumed that auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), as an abnormal auditory perception, could be linked with body ownership, and the RHI paradigm could be conducted in patients with AVHs to explore the underlying mechanisms. In this study, we investigated the performance of patients with/without AVHs in the RHI. We administered the RHI paradigm to 80 patients with schizophrenia (47 with AVHs and 33 without AVHs) and 36 healthy controls. We conducted the experiment under two conditions (synchronous and asynchronous) and evaluated the RHI effects by both objective and subjective measures. Both patient groups experienced the RHI more quickly and strongly than HCs. The RHI effects of patients with AVHs were significantly smaller than those of patients without AVHs. Another important finding was that patients with AVHs did not show a reduction in RHI under asynchronous conditions. These results emphasize the disturbances of the sense of body ownership in schizophrenia patients with/without AVHs and the associations with AVHs. Furthermore, it is suggested that patients with AVHs may have multisensory processing dysfunctions and internal timing deficits.