Development of somatosensory sensitivity scale

There are some functional and anatomical differences on transmission and procession of somatosensorial information(touch, vibration, pain etc.). It is stated that people show diversities on sensory processing as hypo- and hyper- sensitivities at neural and behavioral level. In this study, we aimed to develop a somatic sensory sensitivity scale which can distinguish these differences. Candidate items prepared by asking random people about which sensory stimuli they find aversive. A pilot study was conducted online with a draft scale consisting of candidate items. Factor analysis was used, expert opinion was collected and proceed to the second stage. In the second stage, implementations were conducted face to face with 369 college students in and around Ankara. Handedness Scale was used for discriminant validation. We found no correlations between two irrelevant scales as expected. Test-retest reliability (r=0,838) and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha =0,776) was established. Items showed three-factor structure as touch, pain and itch. These factors consisted with functional anatomical differences in accordance with somatosensory types. Although women participants got higher scores than men, there were no statistical differences. It is stated in the literature that autistic traits seen in the healthy population. It is also reported that these autistic traits are related to sensory sensitivity. Based on this relationship, it can be expected that there are sensory sensitivity differences between people with high and low autistic traits. Autistic traits evaluated with Turkish version of Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and correlated with somatosensory sensitivity scale. The results show that there is a significant difference between scores of people with high and low autistic traits. Men scored higher than women on AQ matched previous research. To further our research we intend to investigate visual and auditory sensitivities with somatosensory sensitivity and to study on various age group by increasing sample size. Keywords: sensory sensitivity, somatic sense, autistic traits