Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Reactivity (RSA‐R) correlates both positively and negatively with externalizing behaviour in autistic individuals. These inconsistencies may result from task‐based differences. This pilot study measured RSA‐R in 4‐to 6‐year‐olds, across two timepoints, using four validated tasks with matched baseline and challenge periods. Social, cognitive, sensory and emotional tasks were employed to evaluate the use of a domain‐specific approach in measuring RSA‐R in young autistic children. RSA and parent‐reported externalizing behaviour were collected from 16 children (Mage = 5.60 years; 13 male; 12 White/Caucasian; 15 non‐Hispanic/Latine). RSA‐R was measured by the difference score of the challenge task minus its corresponding comparison task. Correlations were computed to evaluate associations between RSA‐R and behaviour. RSA was reliably measured for 3/4 tasks (0.694 ≤ intraclass correlation coefficients [ICCs] ≤ 0.896). Only RSA‐R during a social task correlated with externalizing behaviour. These results support using a battery that measures a range of challenges, differing in social demands, to characterize how arousal contributes to emotion regulation demands among young autistic children.

中文翻译：

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试验电池以评估自闭症谱系障碍儿童早期的副交感神经反应和外化行为

呼吸性窦性心律失常反应性（RSA-R）与自闭症患者的外化行为呈正相关和负相关。这些不一致可能是由于基于任务的差异造成的。这项试点研究在两个时间点测量了 4 至 6 岁儿童的 RSA-R，使用了四项经过验证的任务以及匹配的基线和挑战期。采用社交、认知、感觉和情感任务来评估特定领域方法在测量年幼自闭症儿童 RSA-R 中的使用情况。从 16 名儿童中收集了 RSA 和家长报告的外化行为（中号年龄= 5.60 年； 13 男； 12 白人/白种人； 15 非西班牙裔/拉丁裔）。 RSA-R 通过挑战任务的差异分数减去其相应的比较任务来衡量。计算相关性以评估 RSA-R 与行为之间的关联。 RSA 对于 3/4 任务进行了可靠测量（0.694 ≤ 组内相关系数 [ICC] ≤ 0.896）。只有社交任务期间的 RSA-R 与外化行为相关。这些结果支持使用一个电池来测量一系列不同社会需求的挑战，来描述唤醒如何促进自闭症儿童的情绪调节需求。