Abnormal cortical voice processing in autism

Abstract

Impairments in social interaction are a key feature of autism and are associated with atypical social information processing. Here we report functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results showing that individuals with autism failed to activate superior temporal sulcus (STS) voice-selective regions in response to vocal sounds, whereas they showed a normal activation pattern in response to nonvocal sounds. These findings suggest abnormal cortical processing of socially relevant auditory information in autism.

Voice processing in human and non-human primates

“…The control group showed an enhanced activation along anterior STS regions when vocal sounds were compared with non-vocal sounds, consistent with the previous experiments. In contrast, no voice-sensitive response could be observed in the autistic group (Gervais et al 2004). When the responses to the vocal and non-vocal sounds were independently analysed, the response of the autistic group to the non-vocal sounds was found to be essentially normal, i.e.…”

“…(i) Abnormal cortical response to voice in autism Gervais et al (2004) investigated the voice-sensitive cortical activity in autistic individuals. They used fMRI and the same protocol as Belin et al (2000) to compare a group of five adults with autism with a group of eight age-matched controls.…”

Intact Spectral but Abnormal Temporal Processing of Auditory Stimuli in Autism

“…Presumably, the auditory perceptual profile is a consequence of atypical cortical processing as well. Several neurophysiological studies found cortical processing anomalies of auditory stimuli in autism Gervais et al 2004;Boddaert et al 2004). Moreover, evidence suggestive of abnormal peripheral processing at the level of the brainstem has been reported as well (Khalfa et al 2001b).…”

Magnesium in the Central Nervous System

“…More recently, in autistic children with behavioural disorders and hyperactivity (Zilbovicius et al, 2000;Schmidt and Taylor, 1988;Chakraborti et al, 2002), positive emission tomography (PET) has shown a significant decrease in cerebral blood flow localized at the temporal lobe level in 76% of the children examined. Taken together with the fact that intra--erythrocyte free Mg 2+ is associated with increased blood pressure (Zilbovicius et al, 2000) and that brain from rats fed with low Mg diets are more susceptible to permanent brain focal ischemia (Gervais et al, 2004), we can hypothesize that intracellular Mg 2+ deficiency could be responsible, at least in part, of some central activity disorders observed in these children. The duration of the treatment necessary to get significant improvement seems to be about 8 weeks.…”

“…The activity of this channel generates an influx of calcium and, in turn, leads to excitotoxic cell death and apoptosis (Borella et al, 1993). In the same way, abnormal dietary deficiency of Mg as well as abnormalities in Mg metabolism play important roles in different types of heart diseases, and Mg influences catecholamine signalling in such diseases (Gervais et al, 2004). Recently, in primary autistic children, positive emission tomography (PET) has been used to demonstrate a significant decrease in cerebral blood flow localized to the temporal lobes in 16/21 of children (Zilbovicius et al, 2000;Macdonald et al, 2004;Demougeot et al, 2004).…”