Neural and Behavioral Differences in Speech Perception for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders Within an...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech and Hearing Science

Background:

• Reduced visual articulatory information may contribute to language deficits in autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
• Understanding audiovisual speech perception is crucial for identifying neural differences in ASD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate behavioral and neural differences in visual speech perception between children with ASD and neurotypical (TD) children.
• To assess the impact of visible articulatory information on speech perception using an audiovisual phonemic restoration paradigm.

Main Methods:

• An audiovisual (AV) phonemic restoration paradigm was used with children aged 6-13 years with ASD (n=17) and TD peers (n=33).
• Stimuli included /ba/-/a/ and /ba/-/pa/ contrasts presented with a fully visible face (AV) or a pixelated face (PX) obscuring articulatory details.
• Behavioral responses (button press) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded.

Main Results:

• TD children were more accurate than children with ASD in discriminating speech contrasts in the pixelated (PX) condition.
• Event-related potentials (ERPs) showed differences, with children with ASD exhibiting earlier P300 responses to the /ba/-/pa/ contrast in both AV and PX conditions.

Conclusions:

• Children with ASD exhibit distinct neural mechanisms for speech processing compared to TD peers within an audiovisual context.
• These findings highlight differences in how children with ASD integrate visual and auditory speech information.