Neural coding of formant‐exaggerated speech and nonspeech in children with and without autism spectrum disorders
Abstract
The presence of vowel exaggeration in infant‐directed speech (IDS) may adapt to the age‐appropriate demands in speech and language acquisition. Previous studies have provided behavioral evidence of atypical auditory processing towards IDS in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), while the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms remain unknown. This event‐related potential (ERP) study investigated the neural coding of formant‐exaggerated speech and nonspeech in 24 4‐ to 11‐year‐old children with ASD and 24 typically‐developing (TD) peers. The EEG data were recorded using an alternating block design, in which each stimulus type (exaggerated/non‐exaggerated sound) was presented with equal probability. ERP waveform analysis revealed an enhanced P1 for vowel formant exaggeration in the TD group but not in the ASD group. This speech‐specific atypical processing in ASD was not found for the nonspeech stimuli which showed similar P1 enhancement in both ASD and TD groups. Moreover, the time‐frequency analysis indicated that children with ASD showed differences in neural synchronization in the delta‐theta bands for processing acoustic formant changes embedded in nonspeech. Collectively, the results add substantiating neurophysiological evidence (i.e., a lack of neural enhancement effect of vowel exaggeration) for atypical auditory processing of IDS in children with ASD, which may exert a negative effect on phonetic encoding and language learning. Lay summary: Atypical responses to motherese might act as a potential early marker of risk for children with ASD. This study investigated the neural responses to such socially relevant stimuli in the ASD brain, and the results suggested a lack of neural enhancement responding to the motherese even in individuals without intellectual disability.
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High-functioning ASD children matched on age, gender, and non-verbal IQ with TD show impaired processing ability regarding speech pitch information.
“Interestingly, when speech and non-speech sounds are compared between high-functioning ASD children matched on age, gender, and non-verbal IQ with TD group, ASD children show impaired processing ability regarding speech pitch information, but no differences are observed for non-speech sounds (Zhang et al. 2019; Chen et al. 2021).”
From Autism Spectrum Disorder and auditory sensory alterations: a systematic review on the integrity of cognitive and neuronal functions related to auditory processing (2023) · cites this paper as Chen et al. 2021
High-functioning ASD children matched on age, gender, and non-verbal IQ with TD show no differences for non-speech sounds.
“Interestingly, when speech and non-speech sounds are compared between high-functioning ASD children matched on age, gender, and non-verbal IQ with TD group, ASD children show impaired processing ability regarding speech pitch information, but no differences are observed for non-speech sounds (Zhang et al. 2019; Chen et al. 2021).”
From Autism Spectrum Disorder and auditory sensory alterations: a systematic review on the integrity of cognitive and neuronal functions related to auditory processing (2023) · cites this paper as Chen et al. 2021
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Zhang, M., Ding, H., & Zhang, Y. (2022) · doi:10.20944/preprints202202.0056.v1 · Cited by 211 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Chen, F., Zhang, H., Ding, H., Wang, S., Peng, G., & Zhang, Y.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
- South China Normal University (CN)
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK)
- Corresponding author
- Zhang, Yang
- Venue
- Autism Research
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2021-03-31
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1357-1374
- ISSN
- 1939-3792 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-3806
- OpenAlex
- W3146237240
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 7
- FWCI
- 1.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Autism Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PolyU Institutional Research Archive (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (31728009)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, infant-directed speech, child-directed speech, auditory processing, neural coding, P1 component, non-speech sounds, phonetic encoding, language acquisition, children
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Child, Child, Preschool, Evoked Potentials, Humans, Language Development, Phonetics, Speech, Speech Perception
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