Predicting Voice Quality in ASD from Early Markers of Vocal Development

 描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的目标是检验以下假设：自闭症儿童出现非典型语音质量是社会互动核心障碍的一个属性，而语音质量障碍是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）发声中共病运动缺陷的早期结果。通过交叉分析电声门图（EGG）记录和纵向录音的家庭语言环境中的80名儿童与非ASD，我们将能够确定是否声学措施的早期声乐发展可以预测非典型的声音质量的结果与电声门图评估。这将有助于开发早期检测和治疗ASD语音质量障碍的有效方法。第一个具体的目标是表征语音质量发展的儿童ASD，非自闭症发育迟缓和典型的发展，使用声门源参数估计从EGG录音在24个月的年龄。我们专门设计了一种新的基于视频的临床评估范式，以引起自闭症儿童的发声，将用于收集儿童的EGG记录。第二个具体的目的是确定在第一个两年的生活和语音质量的结果在第二年的生活结束时，通过比较来自家庭音频记录的声音生产的声学措施的发展轨迹，以确定从EGG录音语音质量的措施之间的关系。第三个具体目标是确定声音质量的措施，发声的声学措施和临床评估措施的缺陷，在自闭症儿童的言语运动控制和社会交往之间的相关性。实现这三个目标将揭示语音质量障碍如何与自闭症患者的共病言语运动缺陷和社会互动核心障碍相关。这项研究涉及机构间咨询委员会战略计划中的两个主题：“新的研究成果”和“异质性”。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to test the hypothesis that the emergence of atypical voice quality in children with autism is an attribute of core impairments in social interaction against the hypothesis that voice quality disorders are an early outcome of comorbid motor deficits in vocal production in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). By cross-analyzing electroglottographic (EGG) recordings and longitudinal audio recordings of the home language environment for 80 children with and without ASD, we will be able to determine if acoustic measures of early vocal development can predict atypical voice quality outcome assessed with electroglottography. This will aid the development of efficient methods for early detection and treatment of voice quality disorders in ASD. The first specific aim is to characterize voice quality development in children with ASD, non-autistic developmental delays and typical development, using glottal source parameters estimated from EGG recordings at the age of 24 months. A novel video-based clinical assessment paradigm that we have specially designed to elicit vocalizations from children with autism will be used to collect EGG recordings from children. The second specific aim is to determine the relation between vocal development in the first two years of life and voice quality outcome at the end of the second year of life, by comparing developmental trajectories for acoustic measures of vocal production derived from home audio recordings to voice quality measures determined from EGG recordings. The third specific aim is to determine the correlation between voice quality measures, acoustic measures of vocal production and clinical assessment measures for deficits in speech motor control and social interaction in children with ASD. Accomplishing these three aims will reveal how voice quality disorders are associated with comorbid speech motor deficits and core impairments in social interaction in autism. This research addresses two themes in the IACC Strategic Plan: `Novel Research Strategies', and `Heterogeneity'.