Autonomic and neuroendocrine responses to a psychosocial stressor in adults with autistic spectrum disorder.

Researchers asked 15 autistic adults and 15 matched controls to give a short speech to strangers.

They measured heart rate, cortisol, and stress hormones before and after the talk.

The goal was to see if autistic bodies react the same way to social stress.

Autistic adults’ hearts rose less than controls during the speech.

Their cortisol and adrenaline levels, however, climbed just like everyone else.

Resting oxytocin was higher in the autism group, but still rose with stress.

Bölte et al. (2008) ran a similar lab study and saw the same pattern: odd heart-rate but normal cortisol.

Duerden et al. (2012) looked at autistic kids getting a blood draw and found high cortisol; the difference is age and invasiveness, not a true clash.

South et al. (2017) showed kids with autism also have dampened skin-conductance to social threat, stretching the blunted-autonomic idea downward from adults to children.

Your client’s body may not show classic fight-or-flight signs even when stress hormones spike. Rely on self-report or visible behavior, not heart-rate alone. Offer calming tools before speeches, interviews, or job tasks even if they look “fine.”