Neural Evidence for Speech Processing Deficits During a Cocktail Party Scenario in Minimally and Low Verbal Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism
Abstract
As demonstrated by the Cocktail Party Effect, a person's attention is grabbed when they hear their name in a multispeaker setting. However, individuals with autism (ASD) are commonly challenged in multispeaker settings and often do not respond to salient speech, including one's own name (OON). It is unknown whether neural responses during this Cocktail Party scenario differ in those with ASD and whether such differences are associated with expressive language or auditory filtering abilities. We measured neural responses to hearing OON in quiet and multispeaker settings using electroencephalography in 20 minimally or low verbal ASD (ASD‐MLV), 27 verbally fluent ASD (ASD‐V), and 27 neurotypical (TD) participants, ages 13–22. First, we determined whether TD's neural responses to OON relative to other names could be quantified with early frontal mismatch responses (MMRs) and late, slow shift parietal and frontal responses (LPPs/FNs). Second, we compared the strength of MMRs and LPPs/FNs across the three groups. Third, we tested whether participants with poorer auditory filtering abilities exhibited particularly weak neural responses to OON heard in a multispeaker setting. Our primary finding was that TDs and ASD‐Vs, but not ASD‐MLVs, had significant MMRs to OON in a multispeaker setting, and strength of LPPs positively correlated with auditory filtering abilities in those with ASD. These findings reveal electrophysiological correlates of auditory filtering disruption within a clinical population that has severe language and communication impairments and offer a novel neuroimaging approach to studying the Cocktail Party effect in neurotypical and clinical populations. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1828‐1842. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Aug 22, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1002/aur.2356
Entities
People
- Barbara Shinn-Cunningham
- Helen Tager-Flusberg
- Le Wang
- Sophie Schwartz
Organizations
- Autism Speaks
- Boston University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- National Institutes of Health
- United States Department of Defense