Individuals on the autism spectrum have been long described to process sensory information differently than neurotypical individuals. While much effort has been leveraged towards characterizing and investigating the neurobiology underlying the sensory differences of autism, there has been a notable lack of consistency in the terms being used to describe the nature of those differences. We argue that inconsistent and interchangeable terminology-use when describing the sensory differences of autism has become problematic beyond mere pedantry and inconvenience. We begin by highlighting popular terms that are currently being used to describe the sensory differences of autism (e.g. “sensitivity”, “reactivity” and “responsivity”) and discuss why poor nomenclature may hamper efforts towards understanding the aetiology of sensory differences in autism. We then provide a solution to poor terminology-use by proposing a hierarchical taxonomy for describing and referring to various sensory features. Inconsistent terminology-use when describing the sensory features of autism has stifled discussion and scientific understanding of the sensory differences of autism. The hierarchical taxonomy proposed was developed to help resolve lack of clarity when discussing the sensory differences of autism and to place future research targets at appropriate levels of analysis.

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描述自闭症感官差异的工作分类法

自闭症谱系个体长期以来一直被描述为以不同于神经正常个体的方式处理感官信息。尽管已经付出了很多努力来描述和研究自闭症感觉差异背后的神经生物学，但用于描述这些差异性质的术语明显缺乏一致性。我们认为，在描述自闭症的感官差异时，​​不一致和可互换的术语使用已经成为问题，而不仅仅是迂腐和不便。我们首先强调目前用于描述自闭症感觉差异的流行术语（例如“敏感性”、“反应性”和“反应性”），并讨论为什么糟糕的命名可能会阻碍理解自闭症感觉差异的病因学。然后，我们通过提出用于描述和引用各种感官特征的分层分类法来解决术语使用不当的问题。在描述自闭症的感觉特征时使用不一致的术语扼杀了对自闭症感觉差异的讨论和科学理解。提出的分层分类法旨在帮助解决在讨论自闭症的感觉差异时缺乏清晰度的问题，并将未来的研究目标置于适当的分析水平。