Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42860550›Full record

ArticleEuropean journal of pain (London, England)2026

How the Brain Interprets Pain in Autistic People: Does Sex Matter?

Yelena Granovsky, Irit Weissman-Fogel, Tseela Hoffman, Merry Kalingel Levi, Eynat Gal, Elliot Sprecher, Merav Shor, Tami Bar-Shalita

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Article in European journal of pain (London, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Yelena GranovskyDepartment of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
Irit Weissman-FogelPhysical Therapy Department, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Tseela HoffmanPhysical Therapy Department, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Merry Kalingel LeviDepartment of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Eynat GalDepartment of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Elliot SprecherDepartment of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
Merav ShorDepartment of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
Tami Bar-ShalitaDepartment of Occupational Therapy, School of Health Professions, Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundWhile psychophysical studies suggest heightened pain sensitivity in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the relationship between subjective pain experience and cortical neurophysiological responses and whether this relationship is sex-dependent, remains poorly understood.

methodsThis cross-sectional two-group comparison study included 50 adults with Level 1 ASD and 52 age-, sex- and IQ-matched typically developing controls (TDC). Pain ratings and cortical contact heat-evoked potentials (CHEPs) were recorded in response to 52°C phasic heat stimuli. ANOVA and regression models assessed the effects of group, sex and pain ratings on CHEP amplitudes.

resultsCompared to TDC, autistic participants reported higher pain scores (p = 0.004) and had lower N

conclusionsOur findings suggest a dissociation between subjective pain experience and cortical responses to nociceptive stimulation in autism, particularly among females, consistent with different salience-related or attentional pain processing. These results underscore the importance of considering sex and autism when interpreting pain-evoked cortical responses and challenge the assumption that pain-evoked potentials provide universally objective measures of pain. SIGNIFICANCE: This study identifies sex-related differences in the relationship between subjective pain ratings and cortical responses to nociceptive stimulation in autistic and typically developing individuals. Autistic females showed particularly attenuated N

Indexed as

Autism Spectrum DisorderAutistic DisorderBrainPainPain PerceptionAdolescentAdultCross-Sectional StudiesElectroencephalographyEvoked Potentials, SomatosensoryFemaleHot TemperatureHumansMalePain MeasurementPain Threshold

Identifiers

PMID42860550
PMCPMC13655186

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.