Reduced object related negativity response indicates impaired auditory scene analysis in adults with autistic spectrum disorder

Veema Lodhia,Blake W Johnson,Michael J Hautus,Jon Brock

doi:10.7717/peerj.261

Abstract

Auditory Scene Analysis provides a useful framework for understanding atypical auditory perception in autism. Specifically, a failure to segregate the incoming acoustic energy into distinct auditory objects might explain the aversive reaction autistic individuals have to certain auditory stimuli or environments. Previous research with non-autistic participants has demonstrated the presence of an Object Related Negativity (ORN) in the auditory event related potential that indexes pre-attentive processes associated with auditory scene analysis. Also evident is a later P400 component that is attention dependent and thought to be related to decision-making about auditory objects. We sought to determine whether there are differences between individuals with and without autism in the levels of processing indexed by these components. Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure brain responses from a group of 16 autistic adults, and 16 age- and verbal-IQ-matched typically-developing adults. Auditory responses were elicited using lateralized dichotic pitch stimuli in which inter-aural timing differences create the illusory perception of a pitch that is spatially separated from a carrier noise stimulus. As in previous studies, control participants produced an ORN in response to the pitch stimuli. However, this component was significantly reduced in the participants with autism. In contrast, processing differences were not observed between the groups at the attention-dependent level (P400). These findings suggest that autistic individuals have difficulty segregating auditory stimuli into distinct auditory objects, and that this difficulty arises at an early pre-attentive level of processing.

Highlights

Autism is a developmental disorder that is defined and diagnosed in terms of impairments in social interaction and communication co-occurring with restricted behaviours and interests (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; American Psychiatric Association, 2013).How to cite this article Lodhia et al (2014), Reduced object related negativity response indicates impaired auditory scene analysis in adults with autistic spectrum disorder
Auditory Scene Analysis provides a useful framework for understanding atypical auditory perception in autism
A failure to segregate the confusion of incoming auditory energy into distinct auditory objects might explain the aversive reaction autistic individuals have to certain auditory stimuli or environments

Summary

Introduction

Autism is a developmental disorder that is defined and diagnosed in terms of impairments in social interaction and communication co-occurring with restricted behaviours and interests (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; American Psychiatric Association, 2013).How to cite this article Lodhia et al (2014), Reduced object related negativity response indicates impaired auditory scene analysis in adults with autistic spectrum disorder. In addition to these core diagnostic ‘symptoms’, many individuals with autism experience hyper- or hypo-sensitivities in visual, auditory, and tactile domains (Talay-Ongan & Wood, 2000; Grandin & Scariano, 1986; Rosenhall et al, 1999). Many autistic individuals experience a distressing hyper-reactivity to noise (Grandin & Scariano, 1986; Rosenhall et al, 1999) and several studies have reported that autistic individuals have difficulty extracting relevant auditory information (i.e., speech) in the presence of competing background noise (Boatman et al, 2001; Alcantara et al, 2004; Teder-Salejarvi et al, 2005; Groen et al, 2009)

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