Lehnert-LeHouillier Heike, Terrazas Susana, Sandoval Steven
Department of Communication Disorders, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, United States.
Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, United States.
Front Psychol. 2020 Oct 8;11:582221. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.582221. eCollection 2020.
Unusual speech prosody has long been recognized as a characteristic feature of the speech of individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, research to determine the exact nature of this difference in speech prosody is still ongoing. Many individuals with verbal autism perform well on tasks testing speech prosody. Nonetheless, their expressive prosody is judged to be unusual by others. We propose that one aspect of this perceived difference in speech prosody in individuals with ASD may be due to a deficit in the ability to entrain-or become more similar-to their conversation partners in prosodic features over the course of a conversation. In order to investigate this hypothesis, 24 children and teens between the ages of 9 and 15 years participated in our study. Twelve of the participants had previously been diagnosed with ASD and the other 12 participants were matched to the ASD participants in age, gender, and non-verbal IQ scores. All participants completed a goal-directed conversation task, which was subsequently analyzed acoustically. Our results suggest (1) that youth diagnosed with ASD entrain less to their conversation partners compared to their neurotypical peers-in fact, children and teens diagnosed with ASD tend to dis-entrain from their conversation partners while their neurotypical peers tend to converge to their conversation partners' prosodic features. (2) Although age interacts differently with prosodic entrainment in youth with and without ASD, this difference is attributable to the entrainment behavior of the conversation partners rather than to those with ASD. (3) Better language skill is negatively correlated with prosodic entrainment for both youth with and without ASD. The observed differences in prosodic entrainment in children and teens with ASD may not only contribute to the perceived unusual prosody in youth with ASD but are also likely to be indicative of their difficulties in social communication, which constitutes a core challenge for individuals with ASD.
长期以来，异常的言语韵律一直被认为是被诊断患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的个体言语的一个特征。然而，确定这种言语韵律差异的确切性质的研究仍在进行中。许多患有语言型自闭症的个体在测试言语韵律的任务中表现良好。尽管如此，他们的表达性韵律被其他人认为是异常的。我们提出，患有ASD的个体在言语韵律方面这种被感知到的差异的一个方面可能是由于在对话过程中与对话伙伴在韵律特征上“同步”——或变得更加相似——的能力存在缺陷。为了研究这一假设，24名年龄在9至15岁之间的儿童和青少年参与了我们的研究。其中12名参与者之前被诊断患有ASD，另外12名参与者在年龄、性别和非言语智商分数方面与患有ASD的参与者相匹配。所有参与者都完成了一项目标导向的对话任务，随后对其进行声学分析。我们的结果表明：（1）与神经典型的同龄人相比，被诊断患有ASD的年轻人与对话伙伴的“同步”程度更低——事实上，被诊断患有ASD的儿童和青少年往往会与对话伙伴“不同步”，而他们神经典型的同龄人则倾向于与对话伙伴的韵律特征趋同。（2）尽管年龄在患有和未患有ASD的年轻人中与韵律“同步”的相互作用方式不同，但这种差异可归因于对话伙伴的“同步”行为，而非患有ASD的人。（3）对于患有和未患有ASD的年轻人来说，更好的语言技能与韵律“同步”呈负相关。在患有ASD的儿童和青少年中观察到的韵律“同步”差异不仅可能导致患有ASD的年轻人被感知到的异常韵律，而且还可能表明他们在社交沟通方面存在困难，这是ASD个体面临的一个核心挑战。
