Kasai Kiyoto, Hashimoto Ohiko, Kawakubo Yuki, Yumoto Masato, Kamio Satoru, Itoh Kenji, Koshida Ichiro, Iwanami Akira, Nakagome Kazuyuki, Fukuda Masato, Yamasue Hidenori, Yamada Haruyasu, Abe Osamu, Aoki Shigeki, Kato Nobumasa
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, 113-8655 Tokyo, Japan.
Clin Neurophysiol. 2005 Jul;116(7):1655-64. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2005.03.007.
Autism is a form of pervasive developmental disorder in which dysfunction in interpersonal relationships and communication is fundamental. This study evaluated neurophysiological abnormalities at the basic level of language processing, i.e. automatic change detection of speech and non-speech sounds, using magnetoencephalographic recording of mismatch response elicited by change in vowels and tones.
The auditory magnetic mismatch field (MMF) was evaluated in 9 adults with autism and 19 control subjects using whole-head magnetoencephalography. The MMF in response to the duration change of a pure tone or vowel /a/ and that in response to across-phoneme change between vowels /a/ and /o/, were recorded.
The groups were not significantly different in MMF power under any conditions. However, the autism group showed a left-biased latency prolongation of the MMF particularly under the across-phoneme change condition, and this latency delay was significantly associated with greater symptom severity.
These results suggest that adults with autism are associated with delayed processing for automatic change detection of speech sounds. These electrophysiological abnormalities at the earliest level of information processing may contribute to the basis for language deficits observed in autism.
These results provide the first evidence for delayed latency of phonetic MMF in adults with autism.
自闭症是一种广泛性发育障碍，其人际关系和沟通功能障碍是根本特征。本研究使用脑磁图记录元音和音调变化引发的失配反应，在语言处理的基础层面，即语音和非语音声音的自动变化检测方面，评估神经生理异常情况。
使用全脑脑磁图对9名自闭症成年人和19名对照受试者的听觉磁失配场（MMF）进行评估。记录对纯音或元音/a/时长变化的MMF以及对元音/a/和/o/之间跨音素变化的MMF。
在任何条件下，两组的MMF功率均无显著差异。然而，自闭症组的MMF潜伏期延长表现为左偏，尤其是在跨音素变化条件下，且这种潜伏期延迟与更严重的症状显著相关。
这些结果表明，自闭症成年人在语音自动变化检测的处理方面存在延迟。在信息处理的最早层面出现的这些电生理异常可能是自闭症中观察到的语言缺陷的基础。
这些结果为自闭症成年人语音MMF潜伏期延迟提供了首个证据。
