title: Auditory cortical change detection in adults with Asperger syndrome.
abstract: The present study investigated whether auditory deficits reported in children with Asperger syndrome (AS) are also present in adulthood. To this end, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from adults with AS for duration, pitch, and phonetic changes in vowels, and for acoustically matched non-speech stimuli. These subjects had enhanced mismatch negativity (MMN) amplitudes particularly for pitch and duration deviants, indicating enhanced sound-discrimination abilities. Furthermore, as reflected by the P3a, their involuntary orienting was enhanced for changes in non-speech sounds, but tended to be deficient for changes in speech sounds. The results are consistent with those reported earlier in children with AS, except for the duration-MMN, which was diminished in children and enhanced in adults.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 9, University of Helsinki, and Department of Child Neurology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland. tuulia.lepisto@helsinki.fi
authors.forename: Tuulia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lepistö
authors.forename: Taina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nieminen-von Wendt
authors.forename: Lennart
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: von Wendt
authors.forename: Risto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Näätänen
authors.forename: Teija
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kujala
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010898:Pitch Perception; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology