What prevents certain people with ASD from developing language is unknown, but it is plausible that such deficits originate from a disorder in central auditory processing (CAPD). An inability to extract relevant speech sounds from other simultaneously occurring sounds has a critical impact on verbal and cognitive development and has been identified in those with various developmental disorders (Chermak & Musiek, 1997). To investigate CAPD differences, I will test minimally verbal (ASD-MV) and verbal (ASD-V) children with ASD for neural markers of effective speech extraction and assess these neural responses in relation to subjects’ language skills. This study will compare cortical responses to stimuli in 40 ASD-V and ASD-MV children, ages 5-15. Subjects will hear two concurrent auditory streams: attention-eliciting target and neutral stimuli (e.g., commands, names) and ambient noise. My analyses will use an exploratory model accounting for expressive language, nonverbal IQ, amplitude of cortical response, and temporal delay to target relative to control stimuli. If CAPD exacerbates the obstacles to learning language, ASD-MV children will present dampened and temporally imprecise cortical responses to speech, even if that speech is attention-eliciting and presented in minimal noise, in comparison to their ASD-V peers. This study would be the first to explore how minimally verbal individuals segregate sounds from distinct sources, one of the most basic processes used to learn language.
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)
Autism Research Database (AFD)
