Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Graduate Program for Neuroscience, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Autism Res. 2020 Oct;13(10):1718-1729. doi: 10.1002/aur.2363. Epub 2020 Sep 3.
The common display of atypical behavioral responses to sounds by individuals with autism (ASD) suggests that they process sounds differently. Within ASD, individuals who are minimally or low verbal (ASD-MLV) are suspected to have greater auditory processing impairments. However, it is unknown whether atypical auditory behaviors are related to receptive language and/or neural processing of sounds in ASD-MLV. In Experiment 1, we compared the percentage of time 47 ASD-MLV and 36 verbally fluent (ASD-V) participants, aged 5-21, displayed atypical auditory or visual sensory behaviors during the administration of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). In Experiment 2, we tested whether atypical auditory behaviors were more frequent in ASD-MLV participants with receptive language deficits. In Experiment 3, we tested whether atypical auditory behaviors correlated with neural indices of sensitivity to perceptual sound differences as measured by the amplitude of neural responses to nonspeech intensity deviants. We found that ASD-MLV participants engaged in atypical auditory behaviors more often than ASD-V participants; in contrast, the incidence of atypical visual behaviors did not differ between the groups. Lower receptive language skills in the ASD-MLV group were predicted by greater incidence of atypical auditory behaviors. Exploratory analyses revealed a significant negative correlation between the amount of atypical auditory behaviors and the amplitude of neural response to deviants. Future work is needed to elucidate whether the relationship between atypical auditory behaviors and receptive language impairments in ASD-MLV individuals results from disruptions in the brain mechanisms involved in auditory processing. LAY SUMMARY: Minimally and low verbal children and adolescents with autism (ASD-MLV) displayed more atypical auditory behaviors (e.g., ear covering and humming) than verbally fluent participants with ASD. In ASD-MLV participants, time spent exhibiting such behaviors was associated with receptive vocabulary deficits and weaker neural responses to changes in sound loudness. Findings suggest that individuals with ASD with both severe expressive and receptive language impairments process sounds differently. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1718-1729. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.
自闭症（ASD）个体对声音表现出非典型的行为反应，这表明他们对声音的处理方式不同。在 ASD 中，语言能力轻度或低下的个体（ASD-MLV）被怀疑有更大的听觉处理障碍。然而，尚不清楚非典型听觉行为是否与 ASD-MLV 中的接受性语言和/或声音的神经处理有关。在实验 1 中，我们比较了 47 名 ASD-MLV 和 36 名语言流利（ASD-V）参与者在进行自闭症诊断观察量表（ADOS）时表现出非典型听觉或视觉感觉行为的时间百分比。在实验 2 中，我们测试了 ASD-MLV 中接受性语言缺陷的参与者是否更频繁地出现非典型听觉行为。在实验 3 中，我们测试了非典型听觉行为是否与神经敏感性的神经指数相关，这种敏感性是通过对非言语强度偏差的神经反应幅度来衡量的。我们发现，ASD-MLV 参与者比 ASD-V 参与者更频繁地出现非典型听觉行为；相比之下，两组之间的非典型视觉行为发生率没有差异。ASD-MLV 组中接受性语言技能较低与非典型听觉行为发生率较高有关。探索性分析显示，非典型听觉行为的数量与对偏差的神经反应幅度之间存在显著负相关。未来的工作需要阐明 ASD-MLV 个体中听觉行为异常与接受性语言障碍之间的关系是否是由于听觉处理相关的大脑机制中断所致。 自闭症（ASD）个体对声音表现出非典型的行为反应（例如，捂住耳朵和哼唱），这表明他们对声音的处理方式不同。在 ASD-MLV 参与者中，表现出这种行为的时间与接受性词汇缺陷和对声音响度变化的神经反应较弱有关。研究结果表明，同时存在严重表达和接受性语言障碍的 ASD 个体对声音的处理方式不同。Autism Res 2020, 13: 1718-1729. © 2020 国际自闭症研究协会和 Wiley 期刊 LLC。
