Background
Autism is often associated with sensory symptoms, but few studies have examined chemosensory
functions in this population. We examined olfactory and taste functioning in individuals
with autism to characterize chemosensory processing and test competing hypotheses
about underlying brainstem versus cortical abnormalities.
Methods
Twenty-one participants (10–18 years) with autism were compared with 27 well-matched
control participants with typical development. Taste identification was tested via
sucrose, NaCl, citric acid, and quinine solutions applied to standard locations on
the anterior tongue. Taste detection thresholds were established in the same regions
with electrogustometry, and olfactory identification was evaluated with “Sniffin’
Sticks.”
Results
Participants with autism were significantly less accurate than control participants
in identifying sour tastes and marginally less accurate for bitter tastes, but they
were not different in identifying sweet and salty stimuli. Taste detection thresholds
via electrogustometry were equivalent. Olfactory identification was significantly
worse among participants with autism.
Conclusions
True differences exist in taste and olfactory identification in autism. Impairment
in taste identification with normal detection thresholds suggests cortical, rather
than brainstem dysfunction. Further research is needed to determine the neurologic
bases of olfactory and taste impairments, as well as the relationship of chemosensory
dysfunction to other characteristics of autism.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Biological PsychiatryAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Sensory Experiences Questionnaire: Discriminating sensory features in young children with autism, developmental delays, and typical development.J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2006; 47: 591-601
- Parent reports of sensory symptoms in toddlers with autism and those with other developmental disorders.J Autism Dev Disord. 2003; 33: 631-642
- A comparison of the performance of children with and without autism on the sensory profile.Am J Occup Ther. 1997; 51: 530-537
- The ecological model of sensory modulation: Performance of children with fragile X syndrome, autism, ADHD, and SMD.in: Roley S. Schaaf R.C. Blanche E. Sensory Integration and Developmental Disabilities. Therapy Skill Builders, San Antonio, TX2001
- Annotation: What do we know about sensory dysfunction in autism?.J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2005; 46: 1255-1268
- Auditory sensory processing in autism: A magnetoencephalographic study.Biol Psychiatry. 2003; 54: 647-654
- Perception of complex sounds: Abnormal pattern of cortical activation in autism.Am J Psychiatry. 2003; 160: 2057-2060
- Perception of complex sounds in autism: Abnormal auditory cortical processing in children.Am J Psychiatry. 2004; 161: 2117-2120
- Subjective face recognition difficulties, aberrant sensibility, sleeping disturbances and aberrant eating habits in families with Asperger syndrome.BMC Psychiatry. 2005; 5: 20
- Impaired olfactory identification in Asperger’s syndrome.J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2003; 15: 105-107
- Food preferences and factors influencing food selectivity for children with autism spectrum disorders.Res Dev Disabil. 2006; 27: 353-363
- A comparison of eating behaviors between children with and without autism.J Autism Dev Disord. 2004; 34: 433-438
- An assessment of food acceptance in children with autism or pervasive developmental disorder—not otherwise specified.J Autism Dev Disord. 2001; 31: 505-511
- Parents and Children in Autism.Wiley, New York1979
- Converging evidence for brain stem injury in autism.Dev Psychopathol. 2002; 14: 537-557
- Embryological origin for autism: Developmental anomalies of the cranial nerve motor nuclei.J Comp Neurol. 1996; 370: 247-261
- Central taste anatomy and neurophysiology.in: Doty R.L. Handbook of Olfaction and Gustation. 2nd ed. Marcel Dekker, New York2003: 679-705
- The orbitofrontal–amygdala circuit and self-regulation of social–emotional behavior in autism.Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2006; 30: 97-117
- Olfactory deficits, cognition and negative symptoms in early onset psychosis.Schizophr Res. 2005; 80: 283-293
- A brief smell identification test discriminates between deficit and non-deficit schizophrenia.Psychiatry Res. 2003; 120: 155-164
- Olfactory identification and WAIS–R performance in deficit and nondeficit schizophrenia.Schizophr Res. 2004; 69: 55-65
- Neuropsychological, olfactory, and hygiene deficits in men with negative symptom schizophrenia.Biol Psychiatry. 1996; 40: 1021-1031
- Autistic disorder and schizophrenia: Diagnostic overlaps.J Autism Dev Disord. 2001; 31: 19-28
- Pervasive developmental disorder and childhood-onset schizophrenia: Comorbid disorder or a phenotypic variant of a very early onset illness?.Biol Psychiatry. 2004; 55: 989-994
- Theory of mind—evolution, ontogeny, brain mechanisms and psychopathology.Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2006; 30: 437-455
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.4th ed. American Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, VA2000 (Text Revision)
- Autism Diagnostic Interview, Revised.Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles, CA2003
- Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule.Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles, CA1999
- Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 6–18.Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment, Burlington, VT2001
- Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—4th ed..Harcourt Assessment, San Antonio, TX2003
- Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—3rd ed..Psychological Corporation, San Antonio, TX1997
- Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test.3rd ed. American Guidance Services, Circle Pines, MN1997
- Four-Factor Index of Social Status.Yale University Department of Sociology, New Haven, CT1975
- Contemporary measurement of human gustatory function.in: Doty R.L. Handbook of olfaction and gustation. 2nd ed. Marcel Dekker, New York2003: 783-804
- A comparison of the ability of 8–9-year-old children and adults to detect taste stimuli.Physiol Behav. 1997; 62: 193-197
- Acid detection by taste receptor cells.Resp Physiol. 2001; 129: 231-245
- Evoked taste thresholds in a normal population and the application of electrogustometry to trigeminal nerve disease.J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1987; 50: 12-21
- Effects of stimulation duration on electrogustometric thresholds.Physiol Behav. 2004; 81: 1-4
- Transformed up–down methods in psychoacoustics.J Acoust Soc Am. 1971; 49: 467-477
- “Sniffin’ sticks”: Screening of olfactory performance.Rhinology. 1996; 34: 222-226
- Multicenter investigation of 1,036 subjects using a standardized method for the assessment of olfactory function combining tests of odor identification, odor discrimination, and olfactory thresholds.Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2000; 257: 205-211
- “Sniffin’ Sticks”: Olfactory performance assessed by the combined testing of odor identification, odor discrimination and olfactory threshold.Chem Senses. 1997; 22: 39-52
- Clinical disorders of olfaction.in: Doty R.L. Handbook of Olfaction and Gustation. 2nd ed. Marcel Dekker, New York2003: 461-478
- Olfactory dysfunction in schizophrenia: A qualitative and quantitative review.Neuropsychopharmacol. 1999; 21: 325-340
- Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences.3rd ed. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ2003
- Olfaction and social drive in schizophrenia.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2003; 60: 578-584
- The effect of chorda tympani section on ipsilateral and contralateral salivary secretion and taste in man.J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1989; 52: 1058-1062
- Electrogustometry: Strengths, weaknesses, and clinical evidence of stimulus boundaries.Clin Otolaryngol. 2003; 28: 406-410
- A study of the test–retest reliability of ten olfactory tests.Chem Senses. 1995; 20: 645-656
- The Smell Identification Test as a measure of olfactory identification ability in schizophrenia and healthy populations: A Rasch psychometric study.J Abnorm Psychol. 2004; 113: 207-216
- Olfactory hallucinations and olfactory identification ability in patients with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.Schizophr Res. 1994; 12: 205-211
- Impairment of olfactory identification in obsessive–compulsive disorder.Psychol Med. 1999; 29: 1227-1233
- Orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction in obsessive–compulsive disorder? II.Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 1999; 9: 415-420
- Olfaction in familial Parkinsonism (FP).Movement Disord. 2005; 20 (S52–S52)
- Olfactory identification in elderly schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.Neurobiol Aging. 1997; 18: 163-167
- Olfactory function in young adolescents with Down’s syndrome.J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1996; 61: 412-414
- Olfactory functioning and cognitive abilities: A twin study.J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2001; 56: P226-P233
- Olfactory function in monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia.Am J Psychiatry. 1998; 155: 134-136
- Impaired olfactory identification in relatives of patients with familial schizophrenia.Am J Psychiatry. 2001; 158: 1286-1290
- ApoE gene and familial risk of Alzheimer’s disease as predictors of odour identification in older adults.Neurobiol Aging. 2006; 27: 1425-1430
- Taste, smell and neuropsychological performance of individuals at familial risk for Alzheimer’s disease.Neurobiol Aging. 2002; 23: 397-404
- The functions of the orbitofrontal cortex.Brain Cogn. 2004; 55: 11-29
- Functional neuroimaging of human olfaction.in: Doty R.L. Handbook of Olfaction and Gustation. 2nd ed. Marcel Dekker, New York2003: 251-274
- Olfactory neuronal responses in the primate orbitofrontal cortex: Analysis in an olfactory discrimination task.J Neurophysiol. 1996; 75: 1659-1672
- Gustatory, olfactory, and visual convergence within the primate orbitofrontal cortex.J Neurosci. 1994; 14: 5437-5452
- The neurocognitive bases of human multimodal food perception: Sensory integration.Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2006; 30: 613-650
- Responses of neurons in the primate taste cortex to the glutamate ion and to inosine 5′-monophosphate.Physiol Behav. 1996; 59: 991-1000
- Neurocognitive function and joint attention ability in young children with autism spectrum disorder versus developmental delay.Child Dev. 2002; 73: 345-358
- Understanding orbitofrontal contributions to theory-of-mind reasoning: Implications for autism.Brain Cogn. 2004; 55: 209-219
- Volumetric alterations of the orbitofrontal cortex in autism.Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2007; 31: 41-45
- Magnetic resonance imaging study of the orbitofrontal cortex in autism.J Child Neurol. 2006; 21: 866-871
- Development of food preferences.Annual Review of Nutrition. 1999; 19: 41-62
Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 18, 2007
Accepted:
April 16,
2007
Received in revised form:
April 13,
2007
Received:
November 1,
2006
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
