Abnormal physiological responses toward sensory stimulus are related to the attention deficits in children with sluggish cognitive tempo.

Previous studies have found that sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) is often associated with difficulties in real-life functioning, such as social problems, emotional difficulties, and academic learning difficulties. However, the underlying mechanisms contributing to the SCT symptoms and its associated real-life difficulties have still not been clearly understood. A previous study has found that SCT symptoms were associated with hypoarousal and hyperarousal toward the sensory stimulus. However, it is still unclear whether such abnormal arousal regulation is related to sustained attention difficulties that have been found to be related to social difficulties and withdrawn behavior in children with SCT. In this study, arousal regulation deficit in SCT is examined by the physiological responses quantified by HRV and EEG in the sensory challenge paradigm. This study aimed to establish a linkage between arousal regulation reflected by HRV and EEG and attention difficulties in children with SCT. The results of this study showed that higher theta power in the auditory stimulation condition than in the resting condition was associated with higher omission errors in sustained attention tasks in the SCT group. It was also found that higher parasympathetic activities during sensory stimulation conditions were associated with higher commission errors in the SCT group. These results reflected that hypersensitivity toward stressful sensitivity toward a stressful sensory stimulus is associated with attention difficulties in children with SCT. This further supported the notion that SCT should be conceptualized as a condition characterized by multiple deficits in different biological systems, such as the cognitive system, the negative valence system, and the arousal regulatory system.

Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of Sensory Processing and Self-Regulation Checklist (SPSRC).

Sensory processing abilities play important roles in child learning, behavioural and emotional regulation, and motor development. Moreover, it was widely demonstrated that numerous children with neurodevelopmental disabilities show differences in sensory processing abilities and self-regulation compared with those of typical children. For these reasons, a complete evaluation of early symptoms is very important, and specific tools are necessary to better understand and recognize these difficulties during childhood. The main aim of this study was to translate, culturally adapt, and validate in a population of Italian typically developing (TD) children the Sensory Processing and Self-Regulation Checklist (SPSRC), a 130-item caregiver-reported checklist, covering children's sensory processing and self-regulation performance in daily life. Preliminary testing of the SPSRC-IT was carried out in a sample of 312 TD children and 30 children with various developmental disabilities. The findings showed that the SPSRC-IT had high internal consistency, a good discriminant, and structural and criterion validity about the sensory processing and self-regulation abilities of children with and without disabilities. These data provide initial evidence on the reliability and validity of SPSRC-IT, and the information obtained by using the SPSRC-IT may be considered a starting point to widen the current understanding of sensory processing difficulties among children.

Examining the Role of Attention Deficits in the Social Problems and Withdrawn Behavior of Children With Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Symptoms.

Previous studies have found that sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) symptoms are often associated with social problems and withdrawn behavior. However, the possible neuropsychological mechanism underlying this relationship remains unclear. Some studies have also found that SCT symptoms are related to deficits in sustained attention and selective attention. However, no study has examined whether attention deficits are related to social problems and withdrawn behavior in children with SCT. This study was the first to examine the neuropsychological correlates of social problems and withdrawn behavior among children with SCT symptoms. The results showed that sustained attention measure (omission) predicted the severity of social problems and withdrawn behavior in children with SCT even after controlling for symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Selective attention measure (response latency mean) was also found to predict the severity of social problems. These results suggest that the social problems commonly exhibited by children with SCT are related to deficits in sustained attention and attentional control. Thus, our results provide an initial support to the link between attention deficits and social problems among children with SCT.

Neuro-physiological correlates of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) symptoms in school-aged children.

This study was the first to examine the relationship between neurophysiological abnormalities and symptoms of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) in children. Thirty children aged 6-12 years were recruited. Their heart rate variability (HRV) was measured under resting and warning signal conditions. At rest, the children's SCT symptoms were found to be positively associated with their HRV (indicated by the standard deviation of the Poincaré plot along the line of identity in normalized units, SD2 nu). SCT symptoms were also positively associated with a change in SD2 nu between the resting and warning signal conditions. When controlling for symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the children's SCT symptoms were significantly predicted by their resting SD2 nu and by changes in SD2 nu and the percentage of successive RR intervals that differ by more than 50 ms (pNN50) between the resting and warning signal conditions. These findings suggest that the readiness and regulation of the autonomic nervous system may contribute to symptoms of SCT. Specifically, disturbances in the internal neurophysiological system may explain the difficulties experienced by children when exposed to environmental stimulation. These initial data support the hypothesis that SCT results from deficiencies in arousal.

Psychometric Properties of Sensory Processing and Self-Regulation Checklist (SPSRC).

BACKGROUND: Some children may encounter difficulties in processing sensory stimuli, which may affect their ability to participate in activities of daily living. Self-regulation abilities may also affect children on how to process different sensory experiences. The Sensory Processing and Self-Regulation Checklist (SPSRC) was developed as a single, parent-reported instrument for the examination of sensory processing and self-regulation difficulties in children. AIMS: This study is aimed at evaluating the psychometric properties of the SPSRC and examine the patterns of self-regulation and sensory processing in children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). METHODS AND PROCEDURES: The contents of the SPSRC were validated by a group of experts, and a field test was subsequently conducted to examine the reliability and validity of this instrument in a sample of 997 typically developing children and 78 children with ASD. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The results of the validation and field test analyses suggest that the SPSRC exhibits high internal consistency, good intrarater reliability, and a valid ability to measure and discriminate sensory processing and self-regulation in children aged 3-8 years with and without ASD. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The current results supported the reliability and validity of SPSRC to assess a child's sensory processing and self-regulation performance in activities of daily living. The study findings warrant further investigation to compare the performance of the SPSRC with laboratory-based tests, as this would better elucidate sensory responsivity in children with sensory modulation disorders from both clinical and research perspectives.