SPD-SWG Participants

Marco, Elysa J., MD

Title: Assistant Clinical Professor
Department: Neurology
Institution: University of California, San Francisco
Mailing Address: 350 Parnassus Ave, Ste 609, San Francisco, CA, 94143
Phone: (415) 353-2567
Website: www.ucsf.edu

Research Interests

Sensory processing in children.

SPD Research Summary

Sensory processing disorder (SPD), estimated to affect up to 5% of children, is a complex neurological disorder that leads to the misinterpretation of sensory information from touch, sound, sight, smell, and movement (Ahn, Miller, Milberger, & McIntosh, 2004; Ayres, 1972). There is a growing interest in sensory processing for typical adults as well as children with specific developmental disorders, such as autism and Fragile X (Castren, Paakkonen, Tarkka, Ryynanen, & Partanen, 2003; Gage, Siegel, & Roberts, 2003; Kogan et al., 2004; L. J. Miller et al., 1999; Oram Cardy, Ferrari, Flagg, Roberts, & Roberts, 2004; Rojas et al., 2001; Wilson, Rojas, Reite, Teale, & Rogers, 2007). There remains, however, a dearth of neurophysiologic data regarding isolated SPD. Additional inquiry is needed to understand the etiology of SPD as well as to validate this disorder as distinct from other neuropsychiatric syndromes. This project is a case-control study of sensory processing in children with and without SPD. We will begin by performing behavioral characterization on children aged 9-11 years with IQ > 80 to obtain as homogenous a sample as possible. We will focus this study on children with the sensory over-responsive subtype of SPD (i.e. those children who clinically exhibit exaggerated response to one or more types of sensory stimuli not perceived as threatening, harmful, or noxious by typical children.) We will use magnetic source imaging (MSI), magnetoencephalography (MEG) co-registered with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to conduct detailed structural and electrophysiologic maps of brain response to auditory and tactile information presented independently (unimodal administration) and simultaneously (multimodal administration). We hypothesize that children with SPD will have hyper-activation and abnormal habituation in their primary sensory brain regions. In other words, they will not have the expected diminution of neuronal response seen with the repetition of familiar stimuli. We further hypothesize that children with SPD will show suppression of activation in brain regions involved in the integration of input from multiple sensory domains. This pilot project will contribute to the long-range goal of understanding sensory processing in children with SPD and will in turn foster the creation of objective sensory processing measures and rational pharmacologic and behavioral therapeutics to enhance quality of life.

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