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1. Mechanisms of voice control related to prosody in autism spectrum disorder and first‐degree relatives

   https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2156  

   Patel, Shivani P. ; Kim, Jason H. ; Larson, Charles R. ; Losh, Molly ( June 2019 , Autism Research)

   Differences in prosody (e.g., intonation, rhythm) are among the most obvious language‐related impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and significantly impact communication. Subtle prosodic differences have also been identified in a subset of clinically unaffected first‐degree relatives of individuals with ASD, and may reflect genetic liability to ASD. This study investigated the neural basis of prosodic differences in ASD and first‐degree relatives through analysis of feedforward and feedback control involved in the planning, production, self‐monitoring, and self‐correction of speech by using a pitch‐perturbed auditory feedback paradigm during sustained vowel and speech production. Results revealed larger vocal response magnitudes to pitch‐perturbed auditory feedback across tasks in ASD and ASD parent groups, with differences in sustained vowel production driven by parents who displayed subclinical personality and language features associated with ASD (i.e., broad autism phenotype). Both ASD and ASD parent groups exhibited increased response onset latencies during sustained vowel production, while the ASD parent group exhibited decreased response onset latencies during speech production. Vocal response magnitudes across tasks were associated with prosodic atypicalities in both individuals with ASD and their parents. Exploratory event‐related potential (ERP) analyses in a subgroup of participants during the sustained vowel task revealed reduced P1 ERP amplitudes in the ASD group, with similar trends observed in parents. Overall, results suggest underdeveloped feedforward systems and neural attenuation in detecting audio‐vocal feedback may contribute to ASD‐related prosodic atypicalities. Importantly, results implicate atypical audio‐vocal integration as a marker of genetic risk to ASD, evident in ASD and among clinically unaffected relatives.Autism Res2019, 12: 1192–1210. © 2019 The Authors.Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Researchpublished by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

   Previous research has identified atypicalities in prosody (e.g., intonation) in individuals with ASD and a subset of their first‐degree relatives. In order to better understand the mechanisms underlying prosodic differences in ASD, this study examined how individuals with ASD and their parents responded to unexpected differences in what they heard themselves say to modify control of their voice (i.e., audio‐vocal integration). Results suggest that disruptions to audio‐vocal integration in individuals with ASD contribute to ASD‐related prosodic atypicalities, and the more subtle differences observed in parents could reflect underlying genetic liability to ASD.

    

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2. A Six‐Minute Measure of Vocalizations in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

   https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2293  

   Tenenbaum, Elena J. ; Carpenter, Kimberly L. H. ; Sabatos‐DeVito, Maura ; Hashemi, Jordan ; Vermeer, Saritha ; Sapiro, Guillermo ; Dawson, Geraldine ( March 2020 , Autism Research)

   To improve early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we need objective, reliable, and accessible measures. To that end, a previous study demonstrated that a tablet‐based application (app) that assessed several autism risk behaviors distinguished between toddlers with ASD and non‐ASD toddlers. Using vocal data collected during this study, we investigated whether vocalizations uttered during administration of this app can distinguish among toddlers aged 16–31 months with typical development (TD), language or developmental delay (DLD), and ASD. Participant's visual and vocal responses were recorded using the camera and microphone in a tablet while toddlers watched movies designed to elicit behaviors associated with risk for ASD. Vocalizations were then coded offline. Results showed that (a) children with ASD and DLD were less likely to produce words during app administration than TD participants; (b) the ratio of syllabic vocalizations to all vocalizations was higher among TD than ASD or DLD participants; and (c) the rates of nonsyllabic vocalizations were higher in the ASD group than in either the TD or DLD groups. Those producing more nonsyllabic vocalizations were 24 times more likely to be diagnosed with ASD. These results lend support to previous findings that early vocalizations might be useful in identifying risk for ASD in toddlers and demonstrate the feasibility of using a scalable tablet‐based app for assessing vocalizations in the context of a routine pediatric visit.

   Although parents often report symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in infancy, we are not yet reliably diagnosing ASD until much later in development. A previous study tested a tablet‐based application (app) that recorded behaviors we know are associated with ASD to help identify children at risk for the disorder. Here we measured how children vocalize while they watched the movies presented on the tablet. Children with ASD were less likely to produce words, less likely to produce speechlike sounds, and more likely to produce atypical sounds while watching these movies. These measures, combined with other behaviors measured by the app, might help identify which children should be evaluated for ASD.Autism Res2020, 13: 1373–1382. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

    

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3. Neural responses to linguistic stimuli in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

   https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.13721  

   Finch, Kayla H. ; Tager‐Flusberg, Helen ; Nelson, Charles A. ( October 2017 , European Journal of Neuroscience)

   Atypical neural responses to language have been found in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in their unaffected siblings. However, given that language difficulties are often seen in these children, it is difficult to interpret whether these neural differences are a result of the diagnosis ofASDor impairments in their language abilities. In this study, we recorded event‐related potentials (ERPs) from four groups of 36‐month‐olds: low‐risk control (LRC), high risk forASDdefined as having an older sibling withASD(HRA) but who do not haveASDor milder autism‐like symptoms (HRA‐Typ),HRAchildren who do not haveASDbut exhibit milder autism‐like symptoms (HRA‐Atyp) andHRAchildren diagnosed withASD(ASD). Children listened to words expected to be acquired early (e.g. ball) and words expected to be acquired late (e.g. calf).ERPs were analysed over time windows sensitive to word processing as well as frontal and temporo‐parietal sites over the left and right hemispheres. When controlling for language abilities, there were group differences within the temporo‐parietal sites. Specifically, theHRA‐Atyp group showed a different timed response to late words compared to theASDandLRCgroups. In addition, we found a relation between neural responses in the left frontal sites andASDseverity. Our results suggest that both language abilities andASDdiagnoses are important to consider when interpreting neural differences in lexical processing.

    

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4. Reduced White Matter Integrity and Deficits in Neuropsychological Functioning in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

   https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2271  

   Haigh, Sarah M. ; Keller, Timothy A. ; Minshew, Nancy J. ; Eack, Shaun M. ( February 2020 , Autism Research)

   Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is currently viewed as a disorder of cortical systems connectivity, with a heavy emphasis being on the structural integrity of white matter tracts. However, the majority of the literature to date has focused on children with ASD. Understanding the integrity of white matter tracts in adults may help reveal the nature of ASD pathology in adulthood and the potential contributors to cognitive impairment. This study examined white matter water diffusion using diffusion tensor imaging in relation to neuropsychological measures of cognition in a sample of 45 adults with ASD compared to 20 age, gender, and full‐scale‐IQ‐matched healthy volunteers. Tract‐based spatial statistics were used to assess differences in diffusion along white matter tracts between groups using permutation testing. The following neuropsychological measures of cognition were assessed: processing speed, attention vigilance, working memory, verbal learning, visual learning, reasoning and problem solving, and social cognition. Results indicated that fractional anisotropy (FA) was significantly reduced in adults with ASD in the anterior thalamic radiation (P= 0.022) and the right cingulum (P= 0.008). All neuropsychological measures were worse in the ASD group, but none of the measures significantly correlated with reduced FA in either tract in the adults with ASD or in the healthy volunteers. Together, this indicates that the tracts that are the most impacted in autism may not be (at least directly) responsible for the behavioral deficits in ASD.Autism Res2020, 13: 702–714. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

   White matter tracts are the data cables in the brain that efficiently transfer information, and damage to these tracts could be the cause for the abnormal behaviors that are associated with autism. We found that two long‐range tracts (the anterior thalamic radiation and the cingulum) were both impaired in autism but were not directly related to the impairments in behavior. This suggests that the abnormal tracts and behavior are the effects of another underlying mechanism.

    

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5. A cross-cultural study showing deficits in gaze-language coordination during rapid automatized naming among individuals with ASD

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91911-y  

   Nayar, Kritika ; Kang, Xin ; Xing, Jiayin ; Gordon, Peter C. ; Wong, Patrick C. M. ; Losh, Molly ( June 2021 , Scientific Reports)

   Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their first-degree relatives demonstrate automaticity deficits reflected in reduced eye-voice coordination during rapid automatized naming (RAN), suggesting that RAN deficits may be a genetically meaningful marker of ASD language-related impairments. This study investigated whether RAN deficits in ASD extend to a language typologically distinct from English. Participants included 23 Cantonese-speaking individuals with ASD and 39 controls from Hong Kong (HK), and age- and IQ-comparable groups of previously-studied English-speaking individuals with ASD (n = 45) and controls (n = 44) from the US. Participants completed RAN on an eye tracker. Analyses examined naming time, error rate, measures of eye movement reflecting language automaticity, including eye-voice span (EVS; location of eyes versus the named item) and refixations. The HK-ASD group exhibited longer naming times and more refixations than HK-Controls, in a pattern similar to that observed in the US-ASD group. Cultural effects revealed that both HK groups showed longer EVS and more fixations than US groups. Naming time and refixation differences may be ASD-specific impairments spanning cultures/languages, whereas EVS and fixation frequency may be more variably impacted. A potential underlying mechanism of visual “stickiness” may be contributing to this breakdown in language automaticity in ASD.

    

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