Understanding early communication signals in autism: a study of the perception of infants' cry
Understanding early communication signals in autism: a study of the perception of infants' cry
复制标题
DOI：
10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01252.x
复制
发表时间：
2010-03-01
影响因子：
3.6
通讯作者：
Venuti, P.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Esposito, G.;Venuti, P.
背景以往的研究表明，自闭症儿童的哭闹被认为是无法解释的，因为他们的父母无法识别其原因。这些结果支持了AD与表达和分享情感问题有关的观点。此外，没有证据表明哭泣事件的哪些特征会影响成年人的感知。本研究的目的是探讨ASD婴儿的啼哭事件的声学特征如何调节他们的感知，并与典型发育（TD）和发育迟缓（DD）婴儿进行比较。在研究1中，我们人为地修改了哭泣事件的结构参数（基频、停顿持续时间、波形调制），然后要求50名成年人（父母和非父母）判断引起的痛苦程度。在研究2中，声学分析应用于从42名AD、TD和DD儿童在18个月时的回顾性家庭录像中选择的哭泣事件。结果表明：（1）在基本频率和哭泣的其他结构参数中的差异导致父母和非父母将哭泣事件感知为更令人厌恶的，以及（2）在18个月大时，AD发作的哭泣有较高的基本频率（f0）。ConclusionOur研究结果提供支持的假设，即自闭症儿童的哭泣发作的声学特征，特别是较高的基本频率，可能占在听众的不安的精神状态。
BackgroundPrevious studies have highlighted that episodes of crying of children with autistic disorder (AD) were perceived as inexplicable from their parents who could not identify causative factors. These results supported the view of AD as related to a problem of expressing and sharing emotions. Moreover, no evidence has been presented on which characteristics of a cry episode influence the adult perception. Aim of our research is to investigate how acoustical features of crying episodes modulate their perception of infants with ASD compared with infants with typical development (TD) and infants with developmental delay (DD).MethodsTwo studies were employed. In study 1, we artificially modified structural parameters (fundamental frequency, duration of the pauses, waveform modulation) of a cry episode, and then 50 adults (parents and non-parents) were asked to judge the level of distress elicited. In study 2, acoustic analysis was applied to episodes of crying selected from retrospective home videos of 42 children with AD, TD and DD at 18 months.ResultsThe results showed that (1) differences in the fundamental frequency and in other structural parameters of the cry lead parents and non-parents to perceive an episode of crying as more aversive and (2) at 18 months of age, AD episodes of crying have higher fundamental frequency (f0).ConclusionOur findings offer support for the hypothesis that acoustic characteristics of episodes of crying of children with autism, especially higher fundamental frequencies, may account for mental states of uneasiness in the listener.