Multisensory Integration of Speech and Gesture in the Normal and Autistic Brain

描述(申请人提供)：参与面对面的交流包括整合由说话者全身显示的共同出现的听觉和视觉线索。这项拟议的研究将检查大脑如何在自然社交交流中整合两种线索-语音和节拍手势(代表语音韵律的手势的一个重要子类别)-在通常发育中的儿童、正常成年人和患有自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的儿童中。首先，将描述典型发育的大脑、发育终点以及语音和节拍手势的多感觉整合部位的标准模式。通常，发育中的儿童和正常成年人将在观看视频记录的摘录时接受功能磁共振成像(FMRI)，在视频记录中，语音伴随着自然出现的节拍手势，随机的无意义的语音动作，以及静止的身体语音。比较大脑对观看这三种视听组合的反应时的激活，将揭示当语言伴随着自然发生的节拍手势时，大脑中对语言反应更显着的区域，以及与语音相关的音频和视觉信息的多感觉整合的基础神经区域。其次，患有自闭症的儿童和典型的配对对照组儿童将在观看相同手势刺激的同时进行功能磁共振成像。这些群体之间的比较将使我们能够评估患有自闭症的儿童--他们在社交交流和自然主义语音韵律产生方面有很好的记录缺陷--是否利用异常的网络和/或在整合语言和节拍手势时表现出显著的激活差异。作为第一次对自然语音伴随节拍手势的功能磁共振研究，拟议中的研究将对公共卫生具有重要意义。这些发现不仅将有助于更好地了解ASD的神经基础，还将为ASD的发展干预提供信息。此外，这一发现还将影响各种语言和沟通障碍的言语治疗技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Engaging in face-to-face communication involves the integration of co-occurring auditory and visual cues displayed by the entire bodies of speakers. The proposed research will examine how the brain integrates two of these cues-speech and beat gesture (an important subcategory of hand gesture that represents speech prosody)-during natural social communication in typically developing children, normal adults, and children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). First, normative patterns in the typically developing brain, developmental endpoints, and multisensory integration sites of speech and beat gesture will be characterized. Typically developing children and normal adults will undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while viewing extracts of a video recording where speech is accompanied by naturally-occurring beat gesture, random meaningless movements with speech, and a still body with speech. Comparing brain activation in response to viewing these three audiovisual combinations will reveal the brain areas that respond more significantly to speech when it is accompanied by naturally-occurring beat gesture as well as the neural areas underlying multisensory integration of speech-related audio and visual information. Second, children with ASD and typically developing matched controls will undergo fMRI while viewing the same gesture stimuli. Comparisons between these groups will allow us to assess whether children with ASD-who have well-documented deficits in social communication and production of naturalistic speech prosody-utilize abnormal networks and/or demonstrate significant differences in activation when integrating speech and beat gesture. As the first fMRI studies of natural speech-accompanying beat gesture, the proposed research will have important implications for public health. These findings will not only lead to a better understanding of the neural foundations of ASD but will also inform developmental interventions for ASD. In addition, the findings will impact speech therapy techniques for a variety of language and communication disorders.