Naturalistic Social Communication in Autistic Females: Identification of Speech Prosody Markers

项目总结 与男性相比，女性自闭症的诊断率要低得多，而且确诊的年龄也要晚一些。因此，更不用说 已经知道女性自闭症的表型。研究表明，诊断工具可能偏向于 男性和自闭症表型特征的发现可能由于女性很少或没有女性而无法捕捉到女性 在他们的样本中有代表性。一项新的研究在自闭症人群中发现了独特的性别差异 包括语言在内的几种方式。为数不多的几项研究以语言使用为特征 自闭症女性通过检查词语使用，确定自闭症女性使用的细微方式来做到这一点 话语标记语、代词和情绪词。这些差异可能导致自闭症女性 提高了社会动机，使用语言来弥补社会困难，尽管没有研究直接 探索了这种可能性。我们建议通过关注语音韵律来弥合这一差距，这是一种未被研究的 语用语言领域，允许个人通过言语传达意义和情感。韵律 在社会交流和自闭症的早期发现中起着重要的作用，但很少有研究 他们的样本中包括了女性，而且还没有研究仔细检查潜在的性别差异。在目标1中，我们将 描述幼儿(4-8岁)的音高和节奏的关键韵律标记的性别差异， 诊断和对话内容采用了一种新的适应自然语言的抽样方法。在……里面 目标2，我们将使用通过正在进行的研究(R01-HD103895-01A1)收集的多模式数据来探索 语音韵律、社会特征和正式语言之间的关系。我们假设自闭症(ASD) 自闭症(NA)组与非自闭症(NA)组在音高和节奏的多个测量方面将显著不同，并且 在围绕“特殊兴趣”话题的谈话中，这些分歧将会加剧。我们预测，虽然 ASD女性将在常见的音高韵律测量中表现出更多的典型韵律，她们将 与ASD男性和NA女性在语调、言语的更复杂社交测量上的区别 速率，然后暂停。我们预测社会测量和语音韵律之间的总体负相关关系 与ASD相关的标志物：ASD女性的这种关系将比男性更强，而 对于自闭症男性来说，语音韵律和语言分数之间的关系会更强。培训目标 包括提高普特南女士在多模式方法、眼球跟踪、语言处理以及 统计分析。这个项目将加强当前对语音韵律的理解，以及它如何与 自闭症表型的其他重要方面。通过进一步描述女性自闭症的表型，这一点 这项工作将有助于对这一研究不足的人群进行更及时的诊断和全面的护理。

PROJECT SUMMARY Autistic females are diagnosed at a significantly lower rate and at later ages than males. As a result, much less is known about the female autism phenotype. Studies have indicated that diagnostic tools may be biased towards males and that findings characterizing the autism phenotype may fail to capture females due to little or no female representation in their sample. Emerging research has identified unique sex differences in the autistic population across several modalities, including language. The handful of studies that have characterized language use in autistic females have done so through examining word use, identifying nuanced ways that autistic females use discourse markers, pronouns, and emotional words. These differences may contribute to autistic females’ heightened social motivation, using language to compensate for social difficulties, although no study has directly explored this possibility. We propose to bridge this gap through a focus on speech prosody, an understudied area of pragmatic language that allows individuals to convey meaning and emotion through speech. Prosody plays an important role in social-communication and in the early detection of autism, yet few studies have included females in their sample and no study has closely examined potential sex differences. In Aim 1, we will characterize differences in key prosodic markers of pitch and tempo in young children (4-8 years) by sex, diagnosis, and conversational content using a novel adaptation of natural language sampling methodology. In Aim 2, we will use multi-modal data collected through an ongoing study (R01-HD103895-01A1) to explore the relationship between speech prosody, social traits, and formal language. We hypothesize that the autistic (ASD) group will significantly differ from the non-autistic (NA) group in multiple measures of pitch and tempo, and that these differences will be exacerbated during conversation around a “special interest” topic. We predict that while ASD females will display more “typical” prosody in common prosodic measurements of pitch, they will be differentiated from ASD males and NA females in more socially complex measurements of intonation, speech rate, and pause. We predict overall negative relationships between social measurements and speech prosody markers associated with ASD: These relationships will be stronger for ASD females than males, while relationships between speech prosody and language scores will be stronger for ASD males. Training aims include advancing Ms. Putnam’s skills in multi-modal methodologies, eye tracking, language processing, and statistical analyses. This project will enhance current understanding of speech prosody and how it relates to other important aspects of the autism phenotype. By further characterizing the female autism phenotype, this work will contribute to more timely diagnoses and comprehensive care of this understudied population.