Friendship and internalizing symptoms among children and adolescents with ASD.
Fear-potentiated startle is normal in ASD teens, so amygdala dysfunction is not driving their social or anxiety issues.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Atladóttir et al. (2010) wired teens with ASD to a startle machine. They measured how much the teens jumped when a loud noise followed a scary picture.
The team also asked about anxiety and social problems. They wanted to know if bigger jumps meant bigger worries.
What they found
The teens with ASD jumped the same amount as typical teens. Their jumps did not track with their anxiety scores or social trouble.
In plain words: the fear circuit in the brain was working fine. The amygdala was not over-firing and causing their social or anxiety issues.
How this fits with other research
Rivard et al. (2018) saw the same null result using brain waves. Both labs show that core emotional brain responses look normal in ASD teens.
Edmiston et al. (2017) looked at stress hormone instead of startle. They found ASD teens made less cortisol during a public-speaking task. Together the papers say: basic fear reflex is normal, but social-evaluative stress may not register as strongly.
Madsen et al. (2014) seems to disagree. They reported stronger startle sensitization in younger ASD kids. The gap is age and task: Falcher tested prepulse inhibition in children; O tested fear-potentiated startle in teens. Different tools, different stories.
Why it matters
Stop blaming the amygdala for every social problem you see. If a teen with ASD is anxious, look at social skills, bullying, or sensory overload instead of assuming a broken fear brain. Use interviews and rating scales, not startle machines, to guide your treatment plan.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
It has been suggested that atypical amygdala function contributes to the social impairments characteristic of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Previous research has demonstrated that adolescents and adults with ASD generate normal response during a fear-potentiated startle paradigm, suggesting this aspect of amygdala function is intact and may not account for the social dysfunction associated with the condition. The amygdala also plays a crucial role in the expression of anxiety and may contribute to high rates of reported anxiety in individuals with ASD. The present study partially replicates prior work by examining the fear-potentiated startle response in adolescents with ASD, and extends this to investigate the relationship between startle response and anxiety. Eyeblink magnitude and latency (electromyographic activity; EMG) were collected from 20 adolescents with ASD and 19 typically developing (TD) age-matched adolescents during a fear-potentiated startle paradigm. Parent-report and self-report of anxiety and additional psychiatric symptoms were collected. Parental reports indicated higher rates of associated psychopathology in adolescents with ASD compared with TD adolescents. Consistent with previous results, both groups showed normal potentiated startle response, and no group differences in EMG were found. Symptoms of anxiety and level of social impairment were unrelated to startle response. These findings held for all levels of anxiety, suggesting that within the context of the fear-potentiated startle paradigm, amygdala response is not associated with degree of atypical social or emotional functioning in ASD.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2010 · doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1014-y