title: Temporal voice areas exist in autism spectrum disorder but are dysfunctional for voice identity recognition.
abstract: The ability to recognise the identity of others is a key requirement for successful communication. Brain regions that respond selectively to voices exist in humans from early infancy on. Currently, it is unclear whether dysfunction of these voice-sensitive regions can explain voice identity recognition impairments. Here, we used two independent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies to investigate voice processing in a population that has been reported to have no voice-sensitive regions: autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our results refute the earlier report that individuals with ASD have no responses in voice-sensitive regions: Passive listening to vocal, compared to non-vocal, sounds elicited typical responses in voice-sensitive regions in the high-functioning ASD group and controls. In contrast, the ASD group had a dysfunction in voice-sensitive regions during voice identity but not speech recognition in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus/gyrus (STS/STG)-a region implicated in processing complex spectrotemporal voice features and unfamiliar voices. The right anterior STS/STG correlated with voice identity recognition performance in controls but not in the ASD group. The findings suggest that right STS/STG dysfunction is critical for explaining voice recognition impairments in high-functioning ASD and show that ASD is not characterised by a general lack of voice-sensitive responses.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Research Group, Neural mechanisms of human communication, Leipzig, 04103, Germany schelinski@cbs.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schelinski
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Research Group, Neural mechanisms of human communication, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.|Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, 10117.
authors.forename: Kamila
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Borowiak
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Research Group, Neural mechanisms of human communication, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.|Department of Psychology, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, 12489, Germany.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: von Kriegstein
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003142:Communication; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: auditory; autism spectrum disorder; person identity recognition; superior temporal sulcus; voice recognition