Atypical cortical processing of bottom-up speech binding cues in children with autism spectrum disorders. 2023

Jussi Alho, and Sheraz Khan, and Fahimeh Mamashli, and Tyler K Perrachione, and Ainsley Losh, and Nicole M McGuiggan, and Steven Graham, and Zein Nayal, and Robert M Joseph, and Matti S Hämäläinen, and Hari Bharadwaj, and Tal Kenet
Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 149 13th St, Boston, MA 02129, USA; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 149 13th St, Boston, MA 02129, USA. Electronic address: jalho@mgh.harvard.edu.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly display speech processing abnormalities. Binding of acoustic features of speech distributed across different frequencies into coherent speech objects is fundamental in speech perception. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the cortical processing of bottom-up acoustic cues for speech binding may be anomalous in ASD. We recorded magnetoencephalography while ASD children (ages 7-17) and typically developing peers heard sentences of sine-wave speech (SWS) and modulated SWS (MSS) where binding cues were restored through increased temporal coherence of the acoustic components and the introduction of harmonicity. The ASD group showed increased long-range feedforward functional connectivity from left auditory to parietal cortex with concurrent decreased local functional connectivity within the parietal region during MSS relative to SWS. As the parietal region has been implicated in auditory object binding, our findings support our hypothesis of atypical bottom-up speech binding in ASD. Furthermore, the long-range functional connectivity correlated with behaviorally measured auditory processing abnormalities, confirming the relevance of these atypical cortical signatures to the ASD phenotype. Lastly, the group difference in the local functional connectivity was driven by the youngest participants, suggesting that impaired speech binding in ASD might be ameliorated upon entering adolescence.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D003463 Cues Signals for an action; that specific portion of a perceptual field or pattern of stimuli to which a subject has learned to respond. Cue
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000067877 Autism Spectrum Disorder Wide continuum of associated cognitive and neurobehavioral disorders, including, but not limited to, three core-defining features: impairments in socialization, impairments in verbal and nonverbal communication, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors. (from DSM-V) Autistic Spectrum Disorder,Autism Spectrum Disorders,Autistic Spectrum Disorders,Disorder, Autistic Spectrum
D001307 Auditory Perception The process whereby auditory stimuli are selected, organized, and interpreted by the organism. Auditory Processing,Perception, Auditory,Processing, Auditory
D013060 Speech Communication through a system of conventional vocal symbols. Public Speaking,Speaking, Public
D015225 Magnetoencephalography The measurement of magnetic fields over the head generated by electric currents in the brain. As in any electrical conductor, electric fields in the brain are accompanied by orthogonal magnetic fields. The measurement of these fields provides information about the localization of brain activity which is complementary to that provided by ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY. Magnetoencephalography may be used alone or together with electroencephalography, for measurement of spontaneous or evoked activity, and for research or clinical purposes. Magnetoencephalogram,Magnetoencephalograms

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