Abstract
Purpose of Review: Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) has been suggested to be a separate disorder from any form of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, it is still unclear about the underlying neurophysiological and neuropsychological mechanism contributed to this condition. The aim of the present review is to examine the possibility to understand the nature of SCT through investigating the sensory modulation abilities in individuals with SCT.
Recent Findings: Sensory modulation abilities have been studied in previous researches of developmental disorders such as ADHD and autism in order to understand their heterogeneous symptoms in these disorders. Sensory modulation processes involve arousal regulation mechanism. Therefore, it is possible to examine the possible arousal regulation deficits in children with SCT using sensory challenging protocol which is commonly used in sensory modulation researches. Previous researches have shown that there is a linkage between brain arousal level and autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. Through examining the ANS activities during exposure to sensory stimulus in individuals with SCT, we can find empirical evidence on the linkage between SCT symptoms and arousal dysregulation. A recent research examined the relationship between ANS activities during expose to auditory stimulus and SCT symptoms. The findings have shown that SCT symptoms were associated with abnormal ANS activities during sensory stimulation phrase. These results reflected the deficient arousal regulatory process in children with SCT symptoms. Implications of examining sensory modulation abilities in developmental disorders have been discussed.
Summary: Examining the sensory modulation abilities in individuals with SCT can help us to further understand their neurophysiological deficits which contributed to the SCT symptoms. Previous research employed this approach has found that SCT symptoms were associated with abnormal ANS activities during sensory stimulation. Using SCT as an example, the current review discussed the potential benefits of investigating the sensory modulation abilities in developmental disorders. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 185-190 |
Journal | Current Developmental Disorders Reports |
Volume | 8 |
Early online date | Nov 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2021 |
Citation
Yung, T. W. K. (2021). Sensory modulation: A window to sluggish cognitive tempo symptoms among children. Current Developmental Disorders Reports, 8, 185-190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40474-021-00238-wKeywords
- Sluggish cognitive tempo
- Sensory modulation
- Children
- Arousal
- Autonomic nervous system