Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 N Campus Dr, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, St. John's University, Staten Island, New York, USA.
J Commun Disord. 2023 Mar-Apr;102:106313. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106313. Epub 2023 Feb 16.
Impairments in prosody (e.g., intonation, stress) are among the most notable communication characteristics of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and can significantly impact communicative interactions. Evidence suggests that differences in prosody may be evident among first-degree relatives of autistic individuals, indicating that genetic liability to ASD is expressed through prosodic variation, along with subclinical traits referred to as the broad autism phenotype (BAP). This study aimed to further characterize prosodic profiles associated with ASD and the BAP to better understand the clinical and etiologic significance of prosodic differences.
Autistic individuals, their parents, and respective control groups completed the Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C), an assessment of receptive and expressive prosody. Responses to expressive subtests were further examined using acoustic analyses. Relationships between PEPS-C performance, acoustic measurements, and pragmatic language ability in conversation were assessed to understand how differences in prosody might contribute to broader ASD-related pragmatic profiles.
In ASD, receptive prosody deficits were observed in contrastive stress. With regard to expressive prosody, both the ASD and ASD Parent groups exhibited reduced accuracy in imitation, lexical stress, and contrastive stress expression compared to respective control groups, though no acoustic differences were noted. In ASD and Control groups, lower accuracy across several PEPS-C subtests and acoustic measurements related to increased pragmatic language violations. In parents, acoustic measurements were tied to broader pragmatic language and personality traits of the BAP.
Overlapping areas of expressive prosody differences were identified in ASD and parents, providing evidence that prosody is an important language-related ability that may be impacted by genetic risk of ASD.
在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者中，重音（例如语调、重音）等韵律障碍是最显著的交流特征之一，这会极大地影响交流互动。有证据表明，自闭症个体的一级亲属中可能存在韵律差异，这表明 ASD 的遗传易感性是通过韵律变化以及被称为广泛自闭症表型（BAP）的亚临床特征表现出来的。本研究旨在进一步描述与 ASD 和 BAP 相关的韵律特征，以更好地理解韵律差异的临床和病因学意义。
自闭症个体、他们的父母和各自的对照组完成了语音交流中韵律特征分析测试（PEPS-C），这是一种对接受性和表达性韵律的评估。对表达性测试的反应进一步使用声学分析进行了检查。评估了 PEPS-C 表现、声学测量值与对话中语用语言能力之间的关系，以了解韵律差异如何导致更广泛的与 ASD 相关的语用特征。
在 ASD 中，对比重音中存在接受性韵律缺陷。关于表达性韵律，与各自的对照组相比，ASD 和 ASD 父母组在模仿、词汇重音和对比重音表达方面的准确性都降低了，尽管没有注意到声学差异。在 ASD 和对照组中，几个 PEPS-C 子测试和与增加语用语言违规相关的声学测量的准确性较低。在父母中，声学测量值与更广泛的语用语言和 BAP 的人格特质有关。
在 ASD 和父母中发现了重叠的表达性韵律差异区域，这提供了证据表明，韵律是一种重要的语言相关能力，可能受到 ASD 遗传风险的影响。
