The Effect of Ambient Sounds on Decision-Making and Heart Rate Variability in Autism

Autistic people report difficulties with the demands of a neurotypical world, but little research has assessed the impact of the environment on such difficulties. We investigated the effect of ambient sounds on decision-making and heart rate variability. Adults without intellectual disability were allocated to autistic (n = 38) or neurotypical (n = 37) groups matched on age, intellectual functioning and self-reported gender. Participants completed a shopping decision-making task in three randomly ordered sound conditions: no sound, non-social shopping sound (e.g. fridges humming) and social shopping sound (e.g. people talking). Decision-making latency, decision-making consistency, and heart rate variability were measured. Participants also provided qualitative reports of their experiences. Qualitative analyses indicated that autistic participants experienced (1) the non-social and social sound conditions more negatively than the no sound condition and (2) the social sound condition more negatively than neurotypical participants. However, there were no statistically significant differences in decision-making latency, decision-making consistency, or heart rate variability across sound conditions and participant groups. Further research should consider alternative quantitative measures to explore subjective experience to help understand further which aspects of the environment autistic people are sensitive to, in turn, enabling more evidence-based autism-friendly changes to be made.