Atypical pattern of discriminating sound features in adults with Asperger syndrome as reflected by the mismatch negativity.
Asperger syndrome, which belongs to the autistic spectrum of disorders, is characterized by deficits of social interaction and abnormal perception, like hypo- or hypersensitivity in reacting to sounds and discriminating certain sound features. We determined auditory feature discrimination in adults with Asperger syndrome with the mismatch negativity (MMN), a neural response which is an index of cortical change detection. We recorded MMN for five different sound features (duration, frequency, intensity, location, and gap). Our results suggest hypersensitive auditory change detection in Asperger syndrome, as reflected in the enhanced MMN for deviant sounds with a gap or shorter duration, and speeded MMN elicitation for frequency changes.
Kujala
T
T
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, PO Box 9, Helsinki FIN-00014, Finland. teija.m.kujala@helsinki.fi
Aho
E
E
Lepistö
T
T
Jansson-Verkasalo
E
E
Nieminen-von Wendt
T
T
von Wendt
L
L
Näätänen
R
R
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008144:Loudness Perception / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology