Deficient brainstem encoding of pitch in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
OBJECTIVE
Deficient prosody is a hallmark of the pragmatic (socially contextualized) language impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Prosody communicates emotion and intention and is conveyed through acoustic cues such as pitch contour. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine the subcortical representations of prosodic speech in children with ASD.


METHODS
Using passively evoked brainstem responses to speech syllables with descending and ascending pitch contours, we examined sensory encoding of pitch in children with ASD who had normal intelligence and hearing and were age-matched with typically developing (TD) control children.


RESULTS
We found that some children on the autism spectrum show deficient pitch tracking (evidenced by increased Frequency and Slope Errors and reduced phase locking) compared with TD children.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first demonstration of subcortical involvement in prosody encoding deficits in this population of children.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings may have implications for diagnostic and remediation strategies in a subset of children with ASD and open up an avenue for future investigations.
The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Dr., Evanston, IL 60208, USA; Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Evanston, IL, USA. Electronic address: nicole_russo@rush.edu.
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Russo
The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Dr., Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
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Skoe
Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Evanston, IL, USA; Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA; Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Evanston, IL, USA.
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Trommer
The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Dr., Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
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Nicol
The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Dr., Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
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Zecker
Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Evanston, IL, USA; Department of Linguistics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
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Bradlow
The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Dr., Evanston, IL 60208, USA; Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Evanston, IL, USA; Department of Neurobiology and Physiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA; Department of Otolaryngology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. Electronic address: nkraus@northwestern.edu.
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Kraus
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001308:Auditory Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011601:Psychophysics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology