Manenti Marta, Prévost Philippe, Houy-Durand Emmanuelle, Bonnet-Brilhault Frédérique, Ferré Sandrine
Université de Tours, INSERM, Imaging Brain & Neuropsychiatry iBraiN U1253, Tours, France.
Excellence Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, CHRU de Tours, Tours, France.
Autism Dev Lang Impair. 2025 Mar 26;10:23969415251322751. doi: 10.1177/23969415251322751. eCollection 2025 Jan-Dec.
While it has been suggested that phonology is relatively spared in autism, some studies have shown that many autistic children and adolescents exhibit severe phonological impairment, of which syllabic complexity is a reliable index. However, although autism is a lifelong disorder, no such evidence exists for adults. The aim of the present study is to bridge this knowledge gap by investigating how autistic adults deal with phonological complexity.
Phonological abilities were assessed in 48 autistic adults aged 18 to 56 years and 50 controls matched on age and sex/gender. A linguistically motivated Nonword Repetition (NWR) task manipulating syllabic complexity, LITMUS-QU(Quasi Universal)-FR(ench)-NWR-Adults, was used to distinguish participants with and without a phonological impairment. In addition to the NWR task, additional tests were conducted to examine potential factors influencing phonological performance. These measures included morphosyntax, vocabulary, nonverbal IQ (NVIQ), short-term memory, working memory, and autism severity, providing a comprehensive understanding of variables affecting phonological abilities in autistic adults.
Global performance on NWR was significantly lower and spanned a wider range in the autism group than that in the control group. By looking at individual results across the structures and substructures included in NWR, which presented varying degrees of syllabic complexity, it was possible to uncover great variability among autistic individuals with a phonologicalimpairment. Phonological proficiency appeared to be related to morphosyntax rather than to lexical knowledge and nonverbal cognition, including memory. Moreover, phonological skills did not correlate with autism severity.
This study represents a first step towards understanding how to characterize phonological skills in autistic adults. Our findings indicate that syllabic complexity prompts diverse behaviors among autistic individuals with impaired phonology. Further research is required to gain insight into the cause(s) underlying the detected difficulties.
虽然有人认为语音学在自闭症中受影响相对较小，但一些研究表明，许多自闭症儿童和青少年存在严重的语音障碍，其中音节复杂性是一个可靠指标。然而，尽管自闭症是一种终身疾病，但针对成年人却没有此类证据。本研究的目的是通过调查自闭症成年人如何处理语音复杂性来填补这一知识空白。
对48名年龄在18至56岁的自闭症成年人以及50名年龄和性别匹配的对照组进行语音能力评估。使用一项基于语言学的非词重复（NWR）任务，即LITMUS-QU（准通用）-FR（法语）-NWR-成人版，该任务通过操纵音节复杂性来区分有无语音障碍的参与者。除了NWR任务外，还进行了其他测试以检查影响语音表现的潜在因素。这些测量包括形态句法、词汇、非言语智商（NVIQ）、短期记忆、工作记忆和自闭症严重程度，从而全面了解影响自闭症成年人语音能力的变量。
自闭症组在NWR上的总体表现显著低于对照组，且范围更广。通过查看NWR中包含的不同结构和子结构的个体结果，这些结构呈现出不同程度的音节复杂性，有可能发现有语音障碍的自闭症个体之间存在很大差异。语音熟练度似乎与形态句法有关，而不是与词汇知识和包括记忆在内的非言语认知有关。此外，语音技能与自闭症严重程度无关。
本研究是迈向理解如何表征自闭症成年人语音技能的第一步。我们的研究结果表明，音节复杂性会促使有语音障碍的自闭症个体表现出不同行为。需要进一步研究以深入了解所发现困难背后的原因。
