Brainstem transcription of speech is disrupted in children with autism spectrum disorders

Nicole Russo, Trent Nicol, Barbara Trommer, Steve Zecker, Nina Kraus*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

126 Scopus citations

Abstract

Language impairment is a hallmark of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The origin of the deficit is poorly understood although deficiencies in auditory processing have been detected in both perception and cortical encoding of speech sounds. Little is known about the processing and transcription of speech sounds at earlier (brainstem) levels or about how background noise may impact this transcription process. Unlike cortical encoding of sounds, brainstem representation preserves stimulus features with a degree of fidelity that enables a direct link between acoustic components of the speech syllable (e.g. onsets) to specific aspects of neural encoding (e.g. waves V and A). We measured brainstem responses to the syllable /da/, in quiet and background noise, in children with and without ASD. Children with ASD exhibited deficits in both the neural synchrony (timing) and phase locking (frequency encoding) of speech sounds, despite normal click-evoked brainstem responses. They also exhibited reduced magnitude and fidelity of speech-evoked responses and inordinate degradation of responses by background noise in comparison to typically developing controls. Neural synchrony in noise was significantly related to measures of core and receptive language ability. These data support the idea that abnormalities in the brainstem processing of speech contribute to the language impairment in ASD. Because it is both passively elicited and malleable, the speech-evoked brainstem response may serve as a clinical tool to assess auditory processing as well as the effects of auditory training in the ASD population.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)557-567
Number of pages11
JournalDevelopmental Science
Volume12
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2009

Funding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

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