Perception and adaptation to talker variability in receptive prosody in ASD

项目总结/摘要 本项目将探讨一个对推进ASD语言学研究具有重要意义的主题： 导航语音韵律中的跨说话者可变性（例如，节奏、语调、音调）。虽然重要性 虽然对自闭症儿童接受性韵律的研究已经有几十年的历史，但相关文献仍然相对较少 而调查结果往往是不确定的接受韵律的一个基本方面，迄今为止， 被忽视的是人类语言的可变性。根据他们的年龄，性别和其他生理和 由于文化因素的影响，说话者在如何使用韵律来表达意思方面会有很大的不同。接受 因此，韵律需要是自适应的，以补偿这些差异。这一见解具有重大意义 对ASD患者的影响，他们的感知在当地高度准确， 受自上而下的知识和全球统计变化的影响。如果他们的接受韵律不恰当 根据在自然语言中普遍存在的跨说话者的可变性进行调制，它将严重限制 他们理解的准确性。这是我们在本提案中第一次检验的假设。 这里提出的实验利用了我们团队最近的一项创新， 接受性语法和语用韵律在大样本的神经典型（NT）成人。我们的研究 表明，当接触到一个新的谈话者，其韵律生产略有不同， 在输入的一般统计数据下，通常期望的是什么，成年听众强烈地重新校准如何 它们对说话者的意思进行分类（例如，这是一个陈述还是一个问题？）在仅仅10分钟的 exposure.在此创新的基础上，我们将研究类似的感知，分类和适应能力。 ASD青少年和NT对照组接受韵律的细微声学变化。更好地 解释个体受试者之间的异质性，以及检查可能的ASD亚组（例如，与 没有语言障碍），我们将通过实验室在当地获得相同的测量结果。 测试以及全国范围内，通过利用一个新的网络交付的测试范式下推出， 项目这将是迄今为止最大的接受性韵律感知实验， 一个新的研究框架，调查核心机制的接受韵律在ASD和 阻碍他们语言和语用交流的缺陷的原因。超越概念拓展 理解，关于青少年接受韵律的适应性和可塑性的新知识， ASD可以为新的干预计划的发展提供信息。网络交付的实验将为 作为我们实验室和其他地方未来研究的原型，促进对不同人群的有效测试 全国各地这一范例可进一步发展，以促进有效的远程保健诊断， 在线干预，满足ASD儿童和成人的感知和认知需求。

Project Summary/Abstract This project will investigate a topic of significance in advancing linguistic research in ASD: the ability to navigate across-talker variability in speech prosody (e.g., rhythm, intonation, tones). Although the importance of studying receptive prosody in ASD has been recognized for decades, the literature remains relatively small and findings often inconclusive. One fundamental aspect of receptive prosody, which has so far been largely overlooked, is the variability of human speech. Depending on their age, gender, and other physiological and cultural factors, talkers can differ substantially in how they use prosody to express meaning. Receptive prosody therefore needs to be adaptive, compensating for these differences. This insight has significant implications for individuals with ASD, whose perception has been found to be highly accurate locally and less impacted by top-down knowledge and global changes in statistics. If their receptive prosody is not appropriately modulated according to the across-talker variability that is ubiquitous in natural language, it would severely limit the accuracy of their comprehension. This is the hypothesis we test, for the first time, in this proposal. Experiments proposed here capitalize on a recent innovation made by our team, testing adaptation of receptive grammatical and pragmatic prosody in large samples of neurotypical (NT) adults. Our research demonstrates that, when exposed to a novel talker whose prosodic productions are slightly different from what is normally expected given the general statistics of the input, adult listeners robustly recalibrate how they categorize the talker’s meaning (e.g., Is this a statement or a question?) after only 10 minutes of exposure. Building on this innovation, we will examine similar abilities to perceive, categorize, and adapt to subtle acoustic variations in receptive prosody in adolescents with ASD and matched NT controls. To better account for heterogeneity among individual subjects, as well as examine possible ASD subgroups (e.g., with and without language impairment), we will obtain the same measurements locally via laboratory-based testing as well as nationwide, by leveraging a new web-delivered testing paradigm launched under this project. This will be the largest perceptual experiment of receptive prosody to date, providing the foundation of a novel research framework for investigating core mechanisms underlying receptive prosody in ASD and the causes of deficits hampering their linguistic and pragmatic communication. Beyond expanding conceptual understanding, the new knowledge about adaptivity and plasticity of receptive prosody in adolescents with ASD can inform the development of novel intervention programs. The web-delivered experiments will serve as a prototype for future research in our labs and beyond, facilitating effective testing of a diverse population across the country. This paradigm can be further developed to facilitate effective telehealth diagnoses and online interventions that meet the perceptual and cognitive needs of children and adults with ASD.