Brain activations while processing degraded speech in adults with autism spectrum disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are found to have difficulties in understanding speech adverse conditions. In this study, we used noise-vocoded (VS) investigate neural processing of degraded individuals ASD. We ran fMRI experiments the ASD group and a typically developed control (TDC) while they listened clear (CS), VS, spectrally rotated VS (SRVS), were requested pay attention heard sentence answer whether it was intelligible or not. The experiment but still intelligible, SRVS unintelligible. recruited 21 right-handed adult males 24 age-matched male TDC participants for experiment. Compared group, observed reduced functional connectivity (FC) between left dorsal premotor cortex temporoparietal junction effect task difficulty processing, computed as VS-(CS + SRVS)/2. Furthermore, FC negatively correlated their Autism-Spectrum Quotient scores. This observation supports our hypothesis that disrupted stream attentive process might be related • Functional conditions is decreased autism. spans junction. autistic symptoms.