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. 2017 Jul 24;12(7):e0181354.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181354. eCollection 2017.

Atypical speech versus non-speech detection and discrimination in 4- to 6- yr old children with autism spectrum disorder: An ERP study

Alena Galilee  1 , Chrysi Stefanidou  2 , Joseph P McCleery  2   3
Affiliations

Atypical speech versus non-speech detection and discrimination in 4- to 6- yr old children with autism spectrum disorder: An ERP study

Alena Galilee et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Previous event-related potential (ERP) research utilizing oddball stimulus paradigms suggests diminished processing of speech versus non-speech sounds in children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, brain mechanisms underlying these speech processing abnormalities, and to what extent they are related to poor language abilities in this population remain unknown. In the current study, we utilized a novel paired repetition paradigm in order to investigate ERP responses associated with the detection and discrimination of speech and non-speech sounds in 4- to 6-year old children with ASD, compared with gender and verbal age matched controls. ERPs were recorded while children passively listened to pairs of stimuli that were either both speech sounds, both non-speech sounds, speech followed by non-speech, or non-speech followed by speech. Control participants exhibited N330 match/mismatch responses measured from temporal electrodes, reflecting speech versus non-speech detection, bilaterally, whereas children with ASD exhibited this effect only over temporal electrodes in the left hemisphere. Furthermore, while the control groups exhibited match/mismatch effects at approximately 600 ms (central N600, temporal P600) when a non-speech sound was followed by a speech sound, these effects were absent in the ASD group. These findings suggest that children with ASD fail to activate right hemisphere mechanisms, likely associated with social or emotional aspects of speech detection, when distinguishing non-speech from speech stimuli. Together, these results demonstrate the presence of atypical speech versus non-speech processing in children with ASD when compared with typically developing children matched on verbal age.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The electrode locations.
The electrode locations in the frontal-central and temporal areas.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Topographical maps.
Scalp potential distributions in the subtraction of topographical activity in the TD versus ASD groups in the selected time interval (300–400 ms) in the four experimental conditions.
Fig 3
Fig 3. ERP waveforms in the frontal-central area.
The figure represents the ERP waveforms recorded from the frontal-central electrodes in the left hemisphere (left side), and frontal-central electrodes in the right hemisphere (right side) in the ASD and the TD control groups.
Fig 4
Fig 4. ERP waveforms in the temporal area.
The figure represents the ERP waveforms recorded from the temporal left (left side) and temporal right (right side) electrodes in the ASD and the TD control groups.
Fig 5
Fig 5. The P350 mismatch effect.
The bar graph shows the mean ERP amplitudes for the P350 component in the fronto-central area in the four conditions the ASD and the TD groups. Asterisks indicate the results of post-hoc paired-sample t-tests: ***-p<0.001, **-p<0.01.
Fig 6
Fig 6. The N600 mismatch effect.
The bar graph shows the mean ERP amplitudes for the N600 Late Slow Wave component in the central area in the four experimental conditions in the ASD and TD groups. The asterisks indicate the results of the post-hoc paired-sample t-tests: *—p<0.05.
Fig 7
Fig 7. The P600 mismatch effect.
The bar graph shows the mean ERP amplitudes for the P600 Late Slow Wave component in the temporal area in the four experimental conditions in the ASD and TD groups. The asterisks indicate the results of the post-hoc paired-sample t-tests:*—p<0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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