Abstract
PurposeInvestigating the steadiness of the phase-coupling between the time-course of the reader's voice and brain signals of subjects with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) passively listening to connected speech using magnetoencephalography (MEG). In typically developed subjects, such coupling occurs at the right posterior temporal sulcus (pSTS) for frequencies below 1 Hz, and reflects the neural processing of sentence-level rhythmic prosody at the prelexical level.MethodsCortical neuromagnetic signals were recorded with MEG (Elekta Oy, Finland) while seven right-handed and native French-speaking ASD subjects (six males, one female, range: 13–20 years) listened to live (Live) or recorded (Recorded) voices continuously reading a text in French for five minutes. Coherence was computed between the reader's voice time-course and ASD subjects' MEG signals. Coherent neural sources were subsequently reconstructed using a beamformer.Key findingsSignificant coupling was found at 0.5 Hz in all ASD subjects in Live and in six subjects in Recorded. Coherent sources were located close to the right pSTS in both conditions. No significant difference was found in coherence levels between Live and Recorded, and between ASD subjects and ten typically developed subjects (right-handed, native French-speaking adults, 5 males, 5 females, age range: 21–38 years) included in a previous study.SignificanceThis study discloses a preserved coupling between the reader's voice and ASD subjects' cortical activity at the right pSTS. These findings support the existence of preserved neural processing of sentence-level rhythmic prosody in ASD. The preservation of early cortical processing of prosodic elements in verbal language might be exploited in therapeutic interventions in ASD.
Highlights
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) represent an heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders of variable severity characterized by clinical features that can be classified into two main groups: social/communication disorders and narrow interest/stereotyped-repetitive behaviors
This study discloses a preserved coupling between the reader’s voice and ASD subjects’ cortical activity at the right posterior temporal sulcus (pSTS). These findings support the existence of preserved neural processing of sentence-level rhythmic prosody in ASD
The preservation of early cortical processing of prosodic elements in verbal language might be exploited in therapeutic interventions in ASD
Summary
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) represent an heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders of variable severity characterized by clinical features that can be classified into two main groups: social/communication disorders and narrow interest/stereotyped-repetitive behaviors (for a review, see [1]). Functional neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the existence of voice-selective regions in both pSTS [7] Based on these data, some authors suggest that a major functional role of the pSTS is to parse auditory or visual inputs into discrete units in order to extract their meaning [6]. Several structural and functional neuroimaging studies have shown pSTS abnormalities in ASD such as decreased gray matter concentration in the cortex around the pSTS [16,17,18], rest hypoperfusion [4,19], and abnormal activation during social tasks or vocal sound processing [20,21,22] Taken together, these data suggest that the pSTS plays a key role in the pathophysiology of social and communication impairments found in ASD. Several authors hypothesize that anomalies involving the pSTS region during early brain development could represent the first step in the cascade of neural dysfunctions underlying ASD [4]
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