Auditory perceptual learning in autistic adults.
Autistic adults may not automatically retune phoneme categories when hearing a new speaker, which could affect speech comprehension strategies.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Alispahic et al. (2022) asked autistic and neurotypical adults to listen to a new speaker. The team checked if the listeners could retune their phoneme categories to match this speaker's voice.
The task is like learning a slight accent. Most people adjust automatically after a few sentences. The study wanted to see if autistic adults show the same rapid flexibility.
What they found
Both groups could still label words and sounds correctly. Yet only the neurotypical adults retuned their categories to the new talker. The autistic adults kept the same sound boundaries they started with.
In short, their perception was accurate but not flexible. They heard speech fine, but they did not update their expectations when the speaker changed.
How this fits with other research
Chiodo et al. (2019) also tested speech categories in verbal autistic adults and found no problems. The two studies agree that basic labeling is intact; Samra adds that flexible updating is not.
Ruiz Callejo et al. (2023) looked at adolescents and found trouble understanding speech in noise. Both papers show auditory gaps, but the teen study used noise while the adult study used a new speaker, so the tasks differ.
Van Overwalle et al. (2024) gave autistic adults explicit category training in the visual domain. After clear lessons, their perception sharpened. This suggests that direct teaching, not passive exposure, may restore flexibility.
Why it matters
If your client hears you fine yet still asks 'What?' when you switch masks or rooms, weak perceptual retuning could be the reason. Try giving a short, explicit cue: 'I have a cold today, my voice is deeper.' Then repeat key words. This small preview may spare both of you repeated clarifications.
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02At a glance
03Original 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.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2022 · doi:10.1002/aur.2778