Categorical perception of Mandarin tones in neurotypical adults with subclinical autistic traits

Abstract

Early studies have revealed that categorical speech perception is impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. However, it remains unclear whether categorical speech perception ability is associated with subclinical autistic traits in neurotypical populations. The current study sought to address this question by examining categorical perception of Mandarin tones (T1, high-level; T4, falling) in young adults. One hundred and thirty-one college students were recruited to participate in two classic categorical perception task, identification and discrimination, and to fill in the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ; Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) for measuring subclinical autistic traits. The results showed that identification slope and categorical boundary width were not significantly correlated with the overall AQ score and the scores of the five subscales. However, between-category discrimination accuracy was significantly correlated with the social subscale score, indicating that individuals with less social skills have heightened between-category discrimination ability. Possible theoretical and practical implications of this association in subclinical populations are discussed. The current study adds to a better understanding of the associations between subclinical autistic traits and categorical speech perception in neurotypical individuals. [Work supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of Ministry of Education of China 20YJCZH079.]