Publication | Closed Access
A pupillometry study of multisensory social and linguistic processing in autism and typical development.
12
Citations
0
References
2020
Year
Pupillary ResponsesNeurolinguisticsLanguage DevelopmentAtypical Language DevelopmentPsycholinguisticsPsychologyAutism Spectrum DisorderDevelopmental SpeechSocial SciencesNeurodiversitySocial Communication DisorderTemporal ManipulationChild LanguageCognitive DevelopmentAutismLanguage StudiesDevelopmental DisorderLinguistic ProcessingAuditory ProcessingCognitive SciencePupillometry StudyTypical DevelopmentSyndromic AutismSpeech CommunicationNeurodevelopmental DisordersSpeech Perception
Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by impairments in social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors. Many studies have demonstrated atypical responses to audiovisual sensory inputs, particularly those containing sociolinguistic information. It is currently unclear whether these atypical responses are due to the linguistic nature of the inputs or the social aspect itself. Further, it is unclear how atypical sensory responses to sociocommunicative stimuli intersect with autism symptomatology. The current study addressed these outstanding questions by using pupillometry in mental age-matched children with and without autism (N = 71) to examine physiological responses to dynamic, audiovisual stimuli including social, sociolinguistic, socioemotional, and nonsocial stimuli, as well as to temporally manipulated stimuli. Data revealed group differences in pupillary responses with social stimuli but not nonsocial stimuli and, importantly, showed no variation through the inclusion of linguistic or emotional information. This suggests that atypical sensory responses are driven primarily by the inclusion of social information broadly. Further, individual responses to social stimuli were significantly correlated with a wide range of autism spectrum disorder symptomatology, including social communication, restricted interests and repetitive behaviors, and sensory processing issues. Pupillary responses to social but not nonsocial presentation were also capable of predicting diagnosis with a high level of selectivity, but only with marginal sensitivity. Finally, responses to the temporal manipulation did not yield any group differences, suggesting that while atypical multisensory temporal processing has been well documented in autism at the level of behavior and perception, these issues may be intact at the physiological level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).