Postural Control in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: What are the Most Striking Specificities and How Can...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Biomechanical Engineering

Background:

• Autistic children (AT) exhibit unique postural control patterns compared to neurotypical (NT) children.
• Analyzing Centre of Pressure (CoP) trajectories involves complex variables, making distinctions challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify specific CoP variables that discriminate postural control between AT and NT children.
• To elucidate the characteristics of postural control in AT children.

Main Methods:

• Evaluated 24 AT and 24 NT children under eyes open (EO), eyes closed (EC), and eyes open on foam (EOF) conditions.
• Extracted 75 frequential, linear, and non-linear CoP variables, analyzing their rate of change between conditions.
• Employed best-subsets analysis to find discriminative variables and Pearson correlations with age and SRS scores.

Main Results:

• 15 out of 75 CoP variables showed significant differences between AT and NT groups.
• Key discriminative variables included the rate of change between EOF and EO conditions and the root mean square of the CoP trembling component.
• Autistic children displayed a more rigid and regular CoP trajectory, especially in the EO condition.

Conclusions:

• Autistic children exhibit distinct, more rigid postural control compared to neurotypical children.
• Findings suggest AT children face greater difficulty integrating multisensory information.
• Increased reliance on supraspinal processes for postural control is indicated in autistic individuals.