Brief Report: Further Evidence for Inner Speech Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorders
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Recent research indicates that individuals with autism do not effectively use inner speech during the completion of cognitive tasks. We used Articulatory Suppression (AS) to interfere with inner speech during completion of alternate items from the Tower of London (TOL). AS detrimentally affected TOL performance among typically developing (TD) adolescents (n = 25), but did not significantly diminish performance among adolescents with high functioning (IQ > 80) autism spectrum disorders (n = 28). Moreover, the TD group's TOL performance under AS was indistinguishable from the autism group's impaired baseline TOL performance. These findings suggest that diminished inner speech usage among individuals with high functioning autism spectrum disorders (relative to TD controls) may contribute to executive dysfunction associated with these disorders.
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Effects of articulatory suppression on Tower of London performance have been reported in control groups of typically developing children in autism studies, but not always separable from other dual-task demands.
“Effects of articulatory suppression on Tower of London performance have also been reported in the control groups of typically developing children in studies on autism (e.g., Wallace, Silvers, Martin, & Kenworthy, 2009), but these effects have not always been clearly separable from other dual-task demands (Holland & Low, 2010).”
From Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015) · cites this paper as Wallace, Silvers, Martin, & Kenworthy, 2009
The initial group-by-condition interaction effect was not significant in Wallace et al. (2009), and the main effect of group only approached significance.
“It should be noted, however, that the initial group-by-condition interaction effect was not significant in this case, and the main effect of group only approached significance (Wallace et al., 2009).”
From Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015) · cites this paper as Wallace et al., 2009
Typically developing participants, but not ASD participants, were adversely affected by articulatory suppression on the Tower of London.
“Pairwise comparisons of performance in each group indicated that typically developing participants, but not ASD participants, were adversely affected by articulatory suppression, suggesting an interference effect with inner speech.”
From Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015) · cites this paper as Wallace et al. (2009)
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Cites
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“Further evidence of irregularities in inner speech was provided in studies by Holland and Low (2010), Russell-Smith, Comerford, Maybery, and Whitehouse (2014), and Wallace et al. (2009).”
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- Authors
- Wallace, G. L., Silvers, J. A., Martin, A., & Kenworthy, L. E.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wallace, Gregory L.
- Venue
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
- Published
- 2009-06-30
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1735-1739
- ISSN
- 0162-3257 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3432
- PMC
- PMC2974759
- OpenAlex
- W2075169693
- Cited by
- 80
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 2.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Drexel University
- National Institutes of Health (Z99 MH999999)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Representations and Identity
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- inner speech, autism spectrum disorder, articulatory suppression, Tower of London, executive dysfunction, high-functioning autism, adolescents, cognitive flexibility
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Cognition, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Language, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Thinking, Young Adult, Executive Function
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