Date of Graduation
8-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Food Science (PhD)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
Food Science
Advisor/Mentor
Seo, Han-Seok
Committee Member
Hettiarachchy, Navam S.
Second Committee Member
Leitner, Erich
Third Committee Member
Luu, Khoa
Fourth Committee Member
Mauromoustakos, Andronikos T.
Fifth Committee Member
Kucharczyk, Suzanne
Keywords
autism; sensory; emotion; perception; stimuli; ASD; Food Science
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that causes significant social, communication, and behavioral challenges and it is often involved in sensory processing issues that lead to feeding problems. While our understanding of how sensory responses differ in people with ASD is limited, past studies indicated atypical responses to certain stimuli. If these stimuli can be identified, they could be good indicators to identify the risk of autism in young children. The main objective of this dissertation was to identify a specific stimulus leading autistic children to exhibit atypical responses in terms of sensory or emotional aspects. Children between the ages of 5 and 14 years were recruited to participate in studies where they were presented with taste, odor, visual, auditory, texture, bimodal, and multimodal stimuli. They rated each stimulus for liking, intensity, familiarity, and want to try again on 9-point scales, and their emotional responses toward each stimulus were measured by explicit (self-reported emojis) and implicit (facial expressions) methods. Results showed that differences exist in the sensory and emotional responses of children with autism, as compared to neurotypical children, especially for caffeine solution, vanilla odorant, crunchy cereal, hot sauce, and 100 Hz pure tones. The methodology used to collect subjective and emotional responses were also validated. Therefore, these five stimuli could be considered as candidates for aiding in the existing diagnostic procedure for monitoring autistic children. Furthermore, this study provided novel information about the emotional reactions of ASD children to sensory stimuli, as measured by explicit and implicit methods.
Citation
Singh, A. (2023). Explicit and Implicit Measurements of Sensory and Emotional Responses to Stimuli in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/4833
