Abstract:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder of which the core symptoms are deficits in social communication and interaction, restricted interests as well as repetitive behaviors. The potential cause of core symptoms of ASD may be the presence of abnormal autonomic arousal level in the resting state which can be reflected by electrodermal activity (EDA). Current researches showed that EDA of ASD population was altered from normal healthy population. Additionally, EDA has its clinical potential in differentiating sub-type within ASD population. EDA has its application advantage in ASD population for its objectivity and simple clinical operation. However, the methodology of EDA is not unified and the research results are highly heterogeneous, which indicates the limits of EDA. It is necessary to integrate EDA with other bio-markers and contemporary brain function detection technology, to further reveal the mechanism of abnormal autonomic arousal level and imbalanced autonomic nervous system in the resting state in ASD population. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) is in main trend of intervention on ASD population, but the standardized and unified clinical intervention has not been formed, which remains to be further studied. Clinical potential of sub-type differentiation by EDA may help to guide accurate NIBS intervention protocol. This paper reviews the application progress of EDA in the resting state in ASD population for the recent 10 years, which is expected to offer theoretical basis for further studying bio-markers and rehabilitation intervention of ASD, and to provide new perspectives for diagnosing and treating ASD.

Key words: autism spectrum disorder (ASD), electrodermal activity (EDA), autonomic arousal level, resting state