Department of Child Psychiatry and Rehabilitation, Affiliated Shenzhen Maternity & Child Healthcare Hospital, Southern Medical University, Shenzhen, China.
Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
Autism Res. 2019 Jul;12(7):1022-1031. doi: 10.1002/aur.2110. Epub 2019 Apr 26.
Language impairment is common in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Previous research has shown that this disability may be, in part, due to atypical auditory processing of speech stimuli. However, how speech sounds are processed in children with ASD remains largely unknown. The present study assessed the developmental pattern of auditory information processing at the level of the brainstem in preschool children with ASD using speech-evoked auditory brainstem response (speech-ABR). Children with ASD (N = 15) and of typical developing (TD) (N = 20), both of preschool age, were enrolled. The speech-ABRs recorded at two different time points (T1 and T2; 9.68 months apart on average) were virtually identical in the TD group. However, in the ASD group, the wave V latency of speech-ABR was significantly shortened and the amplitudes of wave A and C were significantly larger at T2, compared to those recorded at T1 (10.78 months apart on average). Compared to the TD group, the wave V and A latencies were prolonged at T1, whereas the wave E amplitude decreased and wave F latency prolonged at T2. There was a positive partial correlation between the language performance and the wave A amplitude in the ASD group. These results indicate that auditory processing at the subcortical level is well-developed in the TD preschool children, but is immature and abnormal in the children with ASD at the same ages. Thus, aberrant speech processing at the brainstem level may contribute significantly to the language impairment in children with ASD at preschool ages. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1022-1031. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Language impairment is common in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). We investigated the developmental pattern of subcortical auditory processing by monitoring changes in the speech-evoked auditory brainstem response (speech-ABR) over a period of 10 months in preschool children. Our results show that subcortical auditory processing is impaired and immature in children with ASD compared with age-matched, typically developing children. The results suggest that speech-ABR may be used as an objective measure in evaluating the language performance of children with ASD. The results also suggest that aberrant speech processing at the level of the brainstem may contribute significantly to the language impairment in preschool children with ASD.
语言障碍在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童中很常见。先前的研究表明，这种残疾可能部分归因于言语刺激的听觉处理异常。然而，ASD 儿童的言语声音处理方式在很大程度上仍不清楚。本研究使用言语诱发听觉脑干反应（speech-ABR）评估了学龄前 ASD 儿童脑干水平的听觉信息处理的发育模式。入组了年龄匹配的 ASD 儿童（N=15）和典型发育（TD）儿童（N=20）。TD 组的 speech-ABR 在两个不同的时间点（T1 和 T2）记录的结果几乎相同。然而，在 ASD 组中，与 T1 相比，T2 时 speech-ABR 的波 V 潜伏期明显缩短，波 A 和 C 的振幅明显增大（平均相差 9.68 个月）。与 TD 组相比，ASD 组 T1 时波 V 和 A 的潜伏期延长，而 T2 时波 E 的振幅减小，波 F 的潜伏期延长。ASD 组中语言表现与波 A 振幅呈正相关。这些结果表明，TD 学龄前儿童的皮质下听觉处理发育良好，但在相同年龄的 ASD 儿童中不成熟且异常。因此，脑干水平的言语处理异常可能会导致 ASD 学龄前儿童的语言障碍。自闭症研究 2019, 12: 1022-1031. © 2019 自闭症国际研究协会，威利期刊出版社，公司。
