RETRACTED: Auditory perceptual learning in autistic adults

Abstract

The automatic retuning of phoneme categories to better adapt to the speech of a novel talker has been extensively documented across various (neurotypical) populations, including both adults and children. However, no studies have examined auditory perceptual learning effects in populations atypical in perceptual, social, and language processing for communication, such as populations with autism. Employing a classic lexically-guided perceptual learning paradigm, the present study investigated perceptual learning effects in Australian English autistic and non-autistic adults. The findings revealed that automatic attunement to existing phoneme categories was not activated in the autistic group in the same manner as for non-autistic control subjects. Specifically, autistic adults were able to both successfully discern lexical items and to categorize speech sounds; however, they did not show effects of perceptual retuning to talkers. These findings may have implications for the application of current sensory theories (e.g., Bayesian decision theory) to speech and language processing by autistic individuals.Lay Summary: Lexically guided perceptual learning assists in the disambiguation of speech from a novel talker. The present study established that while Australian English autistic adult listeners were able to successfully discern lexical items and categorize speech sounds in their native language, perceptual flexibility in updating speaker-specific phonemic knowledge when exposed to a novel talker was not available. Implications for speech and language processing by autistic individuals as well as current sensory theories are discussed.

Predictive processing of music and language in autism: Evidence from Mandarin and English speakers

“…In our sentence production and rating tasks, participants need to process higher‐level complex stimuli by a novel talker, which requires vigorous integration of bottom‐up and top‐down processes (Heald & Nusbaum, 2014; Kleinschmidt & Jaeger, 2015). It has been reported that autistic adults show delayed auditory feedback during speech production (Lin et al, 2015), and they also lack perceptual adaptation to novel talkers (Alispahic et al, 2022). Other studies have also shown atypical semantic processing (Ahtam et al, 2020; Grisoni et al, 2019; Kamio et al, 2007; O'Rourke & Coderre, 2021) and reduced top‐down modulation during online semantic processing in autism (Henderson et al, 2011).…”

Perception and adaptation of receptive prosody in autistic adolescents

“…In the area of speech perception, Alispahic at al. (2022) tested autistic and neurotypical adults on the perception of fricative categories in Australian English (e.g., /f/-/s/) 65 . Consistent with our current results, their perceptual recalibration experiment revealed intact categorization of unambiguous instances of phonemes but reduced adaptation in response to exposure.…”

Tuning the Musical Mind: Next Steps in Solving the Puzzle of the Cognitive Transfer of Musical Training to Language and Back

“…Such links may pave the way for “embodied” transfer effects, such as potential parallels between sensitivity to nonverbal communicative cues (e.g., back-channeling) across domains (Glenberg & Gallese, 2012; Hadley & Pickering, 2020; Levinson, 2016; Matyja & Schiavio, 2013; Moran et al, 2015). Individual differences in such cross-domain capacities may, moreover, be associated with more general socio-cognitive capacities related to aspects of personality, including empathy and emotional intelligence (Alispahic et al, 2022; Atkinson, 2002; Resnicow et al, 2004). New evidence on how such socio-cognitive capacities might be involved in language processes is continuously emerging (Franich et al, 2021; Herringshaw et al, 2016; Venker et al, 2019).…”