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. 2022 May;52(5):2344-2349.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-021-05087-5. Epub 2021 May 26.

Brief Report: Autistic Traits Predict Spectral Correlates of Vowel Intelligibility for Female Speakers

Jason Bishop  1   2   3 , Chen Zhou  4 , Katarina Antolovic  5 , Lauren Grebe  5 , Kyung Hae Hwang  6 , Gerald Imaezue  5 , Ekaterina Kistanova  4 , Kyung Eun Lee  5 , Katherine Paulino  5 , Sichen Zhang  6
Affiliations

Brief Report: Autistic Traits Predict Spectral Correlates of Vowel Intelligibility for Female Speakers

Jason Bishop et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2022 May.

Abstract

A growing body of research finds that neurotypical autistic traits are predictive of speech perception and language comprehension patterns, but considerably less is known about the influence of these traits on speech production. In this brief report, we present an analysis of vowel productions from 74 American English speakers who participated in a communicative speaking task. Results show higher autistic trait load to be broadly and inversely related to spectral correlates of vowel intelligibility. However, the statistical significance of this relationship is specific to autistic traits along the pragmatic communication dimension, and limited to female speakers.

Keywords: Autism-spectrum quotient; Broad autism phenotype; Intelligibility; Pragmatic communication; Sex differences; Speech production.

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References

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