A working taxonomy for describing the sensory differences of autism

Jason L He; Zachary J Williams; Ashley Harris; Helen Powell; Roseann Schaaf; Teresa Tavassoli; Nicolaas A J Puts

doi:10.1186/s13229-022-00534-1

A working taxonomy for describing the sensory differences of autism

Mol Autism. 2023 Apr 11;14(1):15. doi: 10.1186/s13229-022-00534-1.

Authors

Jason L He¹, Zachary J Williams^{2

3

4

5

6}, Ashley Harris^{7

8

9}, Helen Powell¹⁰, Roseann Schaaf¹¹, Teresa Tavassoli¹², Nicolaas A J Puts^{10

13}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Sackler Institute for Translational Neurodevelopment, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK. jason.he@kcl.ac.uk.
² Medical Scientist Training Program, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA.
³ Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁴ Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁵ Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁶ Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁷ Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁸ Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁹ Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
¹⁰ Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Sackler Institute for Translational Neurodevelopment, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
¹¹ Department of Occupational Therapy, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹² School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AL, UK.
¹³ MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, King's College London, London, UK.

Abstract

Background: Individuals on the autism spectrum have been long described to process sensory information differently than neurotypical individuals. While much effort has been leveraged towards characterizing and investigating the neurobiology underlying the sensory differences of autism, there has been a notable lack of consistency in the terms being used to describe the nature of those differences.

Main body: We argue that inconsistent and interchangeable terminology-use when describing the sensory differences of autism has become problematic beyond mere pedantry and inconvenience. We begin by highlighting popular terms that are currently being used to describe the sensory differences of autism (e.g. "sensitivity", "reactivity" and "responsivity") and discuss why poor nomenclature may hamper efforts towards understanding the aetiology of sensory differences in autism. We then provide a solution to poor terminology-use by proposing a hierarchical taxonomy for describing and referring to various sensory features.

Conclusion: Inconsistent terminology-use when describing the sensory features of autism has stifled discussion and scientific understanding of the sensory differences of autism. The hierarchical taxonomy proposed was developed to help resolve lack of clarity when discussing the sensory differences of autism and to place future research targets at appropriate levels of analysis.

Keywords: Autism; Sensory; Sensory processing.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Autism Spectrum Disorder*
Autistic Disorder*
Humans