ACTE, LaDisco and ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2023 Aug 3;66(8):2562-2580. doi: 10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00002. Epub 2023 Jul 7.
Our study addresses three main questions: (a) Do autistics and neurotypicals produce different patterns of disfluencies, depending on the experimenter's direct versus averted gaze? (b) Are these patterns correlated to gender, skin conductance responses, fixations on the experimenter's face, alexithymia, or social anxiety scores? Lastly, (c) can eye-tracking and electrodermal activity data be used in distinguishing listener- versus speaker-oriented disfluencies?
Within a live face-to-face paradigm combining a wearable eye-tracker with electrodermal activity sensors, 80 adults (40 autistics, 40 neurotypicals) defined words in front of an experimenter who was either staring at their eyes (direct gaze condition) or looking elsewhere (averted gaze condition).
Autistics produce less listener-oriented (, ) and more speaker-oriented (prolongations, breath) disfluencies than neurotypicals. In both groups, men produce less than women. Both autistics' and neurotypicals' speech are influenced by whether their interlocutor systematically looks at them in the eyes or not, but their reactions go in opposite directions. Disfluencies seem to primarily be linguistic phenomena as experienced stress, social attention, alexithymia, and social anxiety scores do not influence any of the reported results. Finally, eye-tracking and electrodermal activity data suggest that laughter could be a listener-oriented disfluency.
This article studies disfluencies in a fine-grained way in autistic and neurotypical adults while controlling for social attention, experienced stress, and experimental condition (direct vs. averted gaze). It adds to current literature by (a) enlightening our knowledge of speech in autism, (b) opening new perspectives on disfluency patterns as important signals in social interaction, (c) addressing theoretical issues on the dichotomy between listener- and speaker-oriented disfluencies, and (d) considering understudied phenomena as potential disfluencies (e.g., laughter, breath).
我们的研究主要解决三个问题：(a) 自闭症患者和神经典型人群在实验者直视和回避目光时是否会产生不同的不流畅模式？(b) 这些模式是否与性别、皮肤电反应、对实验者面部的注视、述情障碍或社交焦虑评分相关？最后，(c) 眼动追踪和皮肤电活动数据能否用于区分以听者为导向和以说话者为导向的不流畅？
在一个将可穿戴眼动追踪器与皮肤电活动传感器相结合的现场面对面范式中，80 名成年人（40 名自闭症患者，40 名神经典型人群）在一名实验者面前定义单词，实验者要么直视他们的眼睛（直视条件），要么看向别处（回避目光条件）。
自闭症患者产生的以听者为导向（，）的不流畅比神经典型人群少，而产生的以说话者为导向（延长、呼吸）的不流畅比神经典型人群多。在两组中，男性产生的 少于女性。自闭症患者和神经典型人群的言语都受到其对话者是否系统地注视他们眼睛的影响，但他们的反应方向相反。不流畅似乎主要是语言现象，因为经历的压力、社会关注、述情障碍和社交焦虑评分都不会影响报告的结果。最后，眼动追踪和皮肤电活动数据表明，笑声可能是一种以听者为导向的不流畅。
本文在控制社会关注、经历压力和实验条件（直接注视与回避注视）的情况下，以精细的方式研究了自闭症和神经典型成年人的不流畅，并为当前的文献增添了内容：(a) 增加了我们对自闭症患者言语的了解，(b) 为不流畅模式作为社会互动中的重要信号开辟了新的视角，(c) 解决了关于以听者为导向和以说话者为导向的不流畅之间二分法的理论问题，(d) 考虑了一些潜在的不流畅现象（例如，笑声、呼吸）。
