Measuring habituation to stimuli: The Italian version of the Sensory Habituation Questionnaire

Sensory habituation allows us to decrease responsiveness to repetitive or prolonged stimuli over time, making them easy to filter out and not interfere with ongoing activities. As such, habituation could be an important aspect to be evaluated within a sensory and cognitive assessment. The main aim of the present study was to validate an Italian version of the Sensory Habituation Questionnaire (S-Hab-Q), a self-report tool assessing how long an adult individual takes to adapt to daily sensory stimuli. We examined the relationship between sensory habituation and sensory sensitivity by administering the Sensory Perception Quotient questionnaire (SPQ) and tested a factor model based on a sensory modality categorization of items. In addition, given the high probability of altered sensory processing in autism, we explored the relationship between sensory habituation and autistic traits by administering the Autism Quotient questionnaire (AQ). A total of 262 participants, aged 18 to 67 years, completed the S-Hab-Q, the SPQ, and the AQ questionnaires. The results showed that, as the original version of the S-Hab-Q, the Italian version had a high internal consistency and a significant correlation with the SPQ score. A confirmatory factor analysis, based on a two-factor model (i.e., vision and hearing vs. touch, smell, and taste), showed a good fit of the S-Hab-Q data. As expected, a significant correlation between the S-Hab-Q and the AQ score was found. Interestingly, mediation analysis revealed that the S-Hab-Q score mediated the relationship between SPQ and AQ scores. Overall, the results confirm that a questionnaire assessing habituation can be a feasible tool to profile individual habituation in daily life. Moreover, they suggest that sensory habituation contributes to explaining the link between sensory sensitivity and autistic traits.