Enhanced attentional processing during speech perception in adult high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: An ERP-study

Anna Borgolte; Mandy Roy; Christopher Sinke; Daniel Wiswede; Michael Stephan; Stefan Bleich; Thomas F Münte; Gregor R Szycik

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108022

Enhanced attentional processing during speech perception in adult high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: An ERP-study

Neuropsychologia. 2021 Oct 15:161:108022. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108022. Epub 2021 Sep 14.

Authors

Anna Borgolte¹, Mandy Roy², Christopher Sinke³, Daniel Wiswede⁴, Michael Stephan⁵, Stefan Bleich⁶, Thomas F Münte⁴, Gregor R Szycik³

Affiliations

¹ Dept. of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany. Electronic address: Borgolte.Anna@mh-hannover.de.
² Asklepios, Psychiatric Hospital Ochsenzoll, Hamburg, Germany.
³ Dept. of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.
⁴ Dept. of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
⁵ Dept. of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.
⁶ Dept. of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany; Center of Systems Neuroscience, Hanover, Germany.

PMID: 34530026
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108022

Abstract

Deficits in audiovisual speech perception have consistently been detected in patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Especially for patients with a highly functional subtype of ASD, it remains uncertain whether these deficits and underlying neural mechanisms persist into adulthood. Research indicates differences in audiovisual speech processing between ASD and healthy controls (HC) in the auditory cortex. The temporal dynamics of these differences still need to be characterized. Thus, in the present study we examined 14 adult subjects with high-functioning ASD and 15 adult HC while they viewed visual (lip movements) and auditory (voice) speech information that was either superimposed by white noise (condition 1) or not (condition 2). Subject's performance was quantified by measuring stimulus comprehension. In addition, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Results demonstrated worse speech comprehension for ASD subjects compared to HC under noisy conditions. Moreover, ERP-analysis revealed significantly higher P2 amplitudes over parietal electrodes for ASD subjects compared to HC.

Keywords: Audiovisual; Autism; EEG; High-functioning; P2; Speech perception.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Autism Spectrum Disorder*
Autistic Disorder*
Brain
Humans
Speech
Speech Perception*