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Updated: Feb 25, 2026

Testing Sensory and Multisensory Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Published on: April 22, 2015
Olfactory Processing in Male Children with Autism: Atypical Odor Threshold and Identification
Filippo Muratori1,2, Alessandro Tonacci3, Lucia Billeci2
1Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Abstract:
Sensory issues are of great interest in ASD diagnosis. However, their investigation is mainly based on external observation (parent reports), with methodological limitations. Unobtrusive olfactory assessment allows studying autism neurosensoriality. Here, 20 male children with high-functioning ASD and 20 matched controls were administered a complete olfactory test battery, assessing olfactory threshold, identification and discrimination. ASD children show lower sensitivity (p = 0.041), lower identification (p = 0.014), and intact odor discrimination (p = 0.199) than controls. Comparing olfactory and clinical scores, a significant correlation was found in ASD between olfactory threshold and the CBCL social problems (p = 0.011) and aggressive behavior (p = 0.012) sub-scales. The pattern featuring peripheral hyposensitivity, high-order difficulties in odor identification and regular subcortical odor discrimination is discussed in light of hypo-priors hypothesis for autism.
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