Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Program in Linguistics, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America.
Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 31;7(1):14465. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-14538-y.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is frequently associated with communicative impairment, regardless of intelligence level or mental age. Impairment of prosodic processing in particular is a common feature of ASD. Despite extensive overlap in neural resources involved in prosody and music processing, music perception seems to be spared in this population. The present study is the first to investigate prosodic phrasing in ASD in both language and music, combining event-related brain potential (ERP) and behavioral methods. We tested phrase boundary processing in language and music in neuro-typical adults and high-functioning individuals with ASD. We targeted an ERP response associated with phrase boundary processing in both language and music - i.e., the Closure Positive Shift (CPS). While a language-CPS was observed in the neuro-typical group, for ASD participants a smaller response failed to reach statistical significance. In music, we found a boundary-onset music-CPS for both groups during pauses between musical phrases. Our results support the view of preserved processing of musical cues in ASD individuals, with a corresponding prosodic impairment. This suggests that, despite the existence of a domain-general processing mechanism (the CPS), key differences in the integration of features of language and music may lead to the prosodic impairment in ASD.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）通常与交流障碍有关，无论智力水平或心理年龄如何。特别是韵律处理的损伤是 ASD 的一个常见特征。尽管在韵律和音乐处理中涉及的神经资源有广泛的重叠，但在该人群中似乎没有音乐感知受损的情况。本研究首次结合事件相关脑电位（ERP）和行为方法，在语言和音乐中研究 ASD 中的韵律短语结构。我们测试了神经典型成年人和高功能 ASD 个体在语言和音乐中的短语边界处理。我们针对与语言和音乐中的短语边界处理相关的 ERP 反应 - 即闭合正移（CPS）进行了测试。虽然在神经典型组中观察到了语言-CPS，但对于 ASD 参与者，较小的反应未能达到统计学意义。在音乐中，我们在音乐短语之间的停顿期间为两组都发现了边界起始音乐-CPS。我们的结果支持 ASD 个体中保留的音乐线索处理观点，同时存在相应的韵律障碍。这表明，尽管存在一种一般领域的处理机制（CPS），但语言和音乐特征的整合中的关键差异可能导致 ASD 中的韵律障碍。
