Supplementary Figure 9: AND increased arousal in TD but not in ASD. A

The influence of AND on ongoing changes in physiological index. Each circle (TD = clear, ASD = red) represents the change in physiological index of a single participant following AND (Y-axis) and Control (X-axis). The diagonal line reflects the unit slope line (x=y) (n = 23 TD, 17 ASD). B. Change in physiological index (summated results of the data in A). The composite physiological index combined the different physiological parameters (NS-EDA, Change in temperature and HRV) with equal weighting (1). An ANOVA with factors of Condition (AND/Control), Time (Before/After CP) and Group (ASD/TD) revealed a significant main effect of Time (F1,38 = 57.8, p < 10⁻⁸, Before CP = −0.66 ± 1.3 AU, After CP = 0.66 ± 1.2 AU) and a significant interaction of Group X Condition X Time (F1,38 = 7.8, p = 0.008, non-parametric reanalysis: U = 99, Z = 2.6, p = 0.008, Cohen's d' = 0.92). This reflected a similar physiological index change across the experiment in TD and ASD in response to the control odor (TD = 0.97 ± 1.39 AU, ASD = 1.31 ± 0.95 AU, t(38) = 0.85, p = 0.40). Yet, the addition of undetected AND significantly reversed the drop in TD (Δ control = 0.97 ± 1.39 AU, Δ AND = 2.10 ± 1.69 AU, t(22) = 2.5, p = 0.02), but had no influence in ASD (Δ control = 1.31 ± 0.95 AU, Δ AND = 0.71 ± 1.46 AU, t(16) = 1.6, p = 0.14). All tests were two-tailed, all centers reflect mean, all error bars reflect SEM. ** = p < 0.01. 1. Bensafi, M., Brown, W. M., Khan, R., Levenson, B. & Sobel, N. Sniffing human sex-steroid derived compounds modulates mood, memory and autonomic nervous system function in specific behavioral contexts. Behav Brain Res 152, 11–22 (2004).