Pecukonis M, Gerson J, Gustafson-Alm H, Wood M, Yücel M, Boas D A, Tager-Flusberg H
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 100 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
Center for Autism Research Excellence, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
Mol Autism. 2025 Aug 6;16(1):40. doi: 10.1186/s13229-025-00655-3.
Little is known about how autistic children's brains process language during real-world "social contexts," despite the fact that challenges with language, communication, and social interaction are core features of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
We investigated the neural bases of language processing during social and non-social contexts in a sample of autistic and neurotypical (NT) preschool-aged children, 3-6 years old, living in the United States. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy was used to measure children's brain response to "live language" spoken by a live experimenter during an in-person social context (i.e., book reading) and "recorded language" played via an audio recording during a non-social context (i.e., screen time). We examined within-group and between-group differences in the strength and localization of brain response to live language and recorded language, as well as correlations between children's brain response to live language versus recorded language and their language skills, as measured by the Preschool Language Scales.
In the NT group, brain response to live language was greater than brain response to recorded language in the right temporal parietal junction (TPJ). In the ASD group, the strength of brain response did not differ between conditions in any brain regions of interest after correction for multiple comparisons. Children who showed a greater difference in right TPJ brain response to live language versus recorded language had higher language skills; this significant correlation was driven by the ASD group.
Findings should be considered preliminary until they are replicated in a larger sample.
Group level findings indicate that for NT children, but not autistic children, the right TPJ responds more strongly to live language presented during a social context compared to recorded language presented during a non-social context. However, individual differences in how the right TPJ responds to language during social versus non-social contexts may help to explain why language skills are so variable across children on the autism spectrum.
尽管语言、沟通和社交互动方面的挑战是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的核心特征，但对于自闭症儿童的大脑在现实世界“社交情境”中如何处理语言却知之甚少。
我们对生活在美国的3至6岁自闭症和神经典型（NT）学龄前儿童样本，研究了社交和非社交情境下语言处理的神经基础。功能近红外光谱用于测量儿童在面对面社交情境（即读书）中对现场实验者所说“现场语言”以及在非社交情境（即看屏幕时间）中通过音频播放的“录制语言”的大脑反应。我们检查了组内和组间对现场语言和录制语言的大脑反应强度及定位差异，以及儿童对现场语言与录制语言的大脑反应与其语言技能之间的相关性，语言技能通过《学前语言量表》进行测量。
在NT组中，右侧颞顶联合区（TPJ）对现场语言的大脑反应大于对录制语言的反应。在ASD组中，经多重比较校正后，任何感兴趣脑区在不同条件下的大脑反应强度均无差异。右侧TPJ对现场语言与录制语言的大脑反应差异较大的儿童语言技能较高；这一显著相关性由ASD组驱动。
在更大样本中重复验证之前，研究结果应被视为初步的。
组水平的研究结果表明，对于NT儿童而非自闭症儿童，与非社交情境中呈现的录制语言相比，右侧TPJ对社交情境中呈现的现场语言反应更强。然而，右侧TPJ在社交与非社交情境下对语言反应方式的个体差异，可能有助于解释为什么自闭症谱系儿童的语言技能差异如此之大。
