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Brief Report: Biological Sound Processing in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

There is debate whether social impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are truly domain-specific, or if they reflect generalized deficits in lower-level cognitive processes. To solve this issue, we used auditory-evoked EEG responses to assess novelty detection (MMN component) and involuntary attentional orientation (P3 component) induced by socially-relevant, human-produced, biological sounds and acoustically-matched control stimuli in children with ASD and controls. Results show that early sensory and novelty processing of biological stimuli are preserved in ASD, but that automatic attentional orientation for biological sounds is markedly altered. These results support the notion that at least some cognitive processes of ASD are specifically altered when it comes to processing social stimuli.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants the Fonds de la Recherche du Québec- Santé (FRQS). ML was supported by a Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Award from CIHR. JL is supported by a Junior 1 Salary Award from the FRQS.

Author Contributions

ML conceived of the study, acquired the data, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. LPB contributed to data processing, statistical analysis and helped to draft of the manuscript. DC participated in the design of the study and recruited participants. DS, HT and JL conceived of the study, supervised data processing, statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded by the Fonds de la Recherche du Québec-Santé (#34604).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Léa Proulx-Bégin

    Present address: Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Melissa Lortie

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada

    Léa Proulx-Bégin

  3. CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center and Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Dave Saint-Amour

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Dominique Cousineau

  5. CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center and Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Hugo Théoret

  6. Department of Pediatrics, Sherbrooke University, CHU Sherbrooke Research Center, 3001, 12e Avenue Nord, Sherbrooke, QC, J1H 5N4, Canada

    Jean-François Lepage

  7. CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, Montréal, Canada

    Dominique Cousineau

Authors
  1. Melissa Lortie
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  2. Léa Proulx-Bégin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jean-François Lepage.

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The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study or their legal tutor in the case of children.

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Lortie, M., Proulx-Bégin, L., Saint-Amour, D. et al. Brief Report: Biological Sound Processing in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 1904–1909 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3093-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3093-5

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