Linguistic and perceptual processing of communicative cues in Asperger Syndrome

Asperger Syndrome (AS) belongs to autism spectrum disorders where both verbal and non-verbal communication difficulties are at the core of the impairment. Social communication requires a complex use of affective, linguistic-cognitive and perceptual processes. In the four studies included in the current thesis, some of the linguistic and perceptual factors that are important for face-to-face communication were studied using behavioural methods. In all four studies the results obtained from individuals with AS were compared with typically developed age, gender and IQ matched controls. First, the language skills of school-aged children were characterized in detail with standardized tests that measured different aspects of receptive and expressive language (Study I). The children with AS were found to be worse than the controls in following complex verbal instructions. Next, the visual perception of facial expressions of emotion with varying degrees of visual detail was examined (Study II). Adults with AS were found to have impaired recognition of facial expressions on the basis of very low spatial frequencies which are important for processing global information. Following that, multisensory perception was investigated by looking at audiovisual speech perception (Studies III and IV). Adults with AS were found to perceive audiovisual speech qualitatively differently from typically developed adults, although both groups were equally accurate in recognizing auditory and visual speech presented alone. Finally, the effect of attention on audiovisual speech perception was studied by registering eye gaze behaviour (Study III) and by studying the voluntary control of visual attention (Study IV). The groups did not differ in eye gaze behaviour or in the voluntary control of visual attention. The results of the study series demonstrate that many factors underpinning face-to-face social communication are atypical in AS. In contrast with previous assumptions about intact language abilities, the current results show that children with AS have difficulties in understanding complex verbal instructions. Furthermore, the study makes clear that deviations in the perception of global features in faces expressing emotions as well as in the multisensory perception of speech are likely to harm face-to-face social communication.Aspergerin oireyhtymä (Asperger Syndrome, AS) on yksi autismin kirjon häiriöistä, johon kuuluu oleellisena osana vaikeudet kielellisessä ja ei-kielellisessä kommunikaatiossa. Sosiaalinen kommunikaatio edellyttää kielellis-kognitiivisten ja havaintoprosessien monimutkaista yhteistoimintaa. Tämän väitöskirjan neljässä osatutkimuksessa tutkittiin kasvotusten tapahtuvalle sosiaaliselle kommunikaatiolle tärkeitä kielellisiä ja havaitsemiseen liittyviä prosesseja behavioraalisin menetelmin. Kaikissa osatutkimuksissa koeryhmään kuuluvien AS-henkilöiden suoriutumista verrattiin iän, sukupuolen ja älykkyysosamäärän mukaan samankaltaisen verrokkiryhmän suoriutumiseen. Ensimmäisessä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin kielellisiä taitoja kouluiässä (Osatutkimus I). Lapset, joilla oli AS suoriutuivat verrokkeja heikommin monimutkaisten sanallisten ohjeiden noudattamisesta. Tämän jälkeen tutkittiin kasvojen ilmeiden tunnistamista aikuisilla (Osatutkimus II). Aikuisilla, joilla oli AS oli vaikeuksia kasvonilmeiden tunnistamisessa kokonaisuuksien hahmottamisen perusteella eli silloin, kun kuvissa oli käytettävissä vain matalia paikkataajuuksia. Lisäksi selvitettiin moniaistista havaitsemista aikuisilla tutkimalla kuullun ja nähdyn (audiovisuaalisen) puheen havaitsemista (Osatutkimus III). Aikuiset, joilla oli AS havaitsivat audiovisuaalista puhetta laadullisesti eri tavalla, vaikka tunnistivat puhetta yhtä hyvin kuullunvaraisesti ja olivat yhtä hyviä huulilta lukijoita kuin verrokit. Lisäksi selvitettiin tarkkaavaisuuden vaikutusta puheen audiovisuaaliseen havaitsemiseen: tarkastelemalla poikkeavatko tämän ryhmän silmänliikkeet (Osatutkimus III) ja tarkkaavaisuuden tahdonalainen suuntaaminen puheen havaitsemisen aikana (Osatutkimus IV) verrokkien vastaavista toiminnoista. Sekä silmänliikkeet että tarkkaavaisuuden tahdonalainen suuntaaminen olivat samankaltaisia molemmilla ryhmillä. Tutkimussarjan tulokset osoittivat että monet kasvotusten tapahtuvalle kommunikaatiolle tärkeät taustatekijät toimivat poikkeavasti henkilöillä, joilla oli AS. Tässä tutkimuksessa huomattiin, että oireyhtymään voi kuulua vaikeus monimutkaisten sanallisten ohjeiden ymmärtämisessä. Lisäksi sekä heikkous kokonaisuuksien hahmottamisen perusteella tapahtuvassa kasvojen tunnistamisessa että laadullisesti erilainen moniaistinen havaitseminen todennäköisesti vaikeuttavat kasvokkain tapahtuvaa kommunikaatiota

Corpora of Disordered Speech in the Light of the GDPR : Two Use Cases from the DELAD Initiative

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Puheen prosodian havaittu epätyypillisyys suomenkielisillä autismikirjon varhaisnuorilla

This study explores the perceived atypicality of the prosody of persons with autism spectrumdisorder (ASD). The data consist of speech samples produced by 11- to 13-year-old Finnish-speaking boys with ASD(n= 5), and by age- and gender-matched controls(n= 6). The speechsamples have been collected from spontaneous speech. A perception test was administeredto 50 neurotypical university students (n= 50). The results show that neurotypical adultsfind the prosody of preadolescent boys with ASD more atypical than the prosody of age- andgender-matched controls. According to the acoustic analyses and the written answers of theraters, the perceptions of atypicality may be generated by sing-song-like or bouncing pitch,disconnected speech rhythm, large pitch excursions or flatness of pitch. The impression ofatypicality is further emphasized if there are occurrences of morpho-syntactic problems (suchas wrong case endings and disconnected syntactic structures), if some words are unintelligibleand if articulation is lethargic, for example. A creaky voice, which was common in the speechsamples, did not attract the attention of the raters. The speech of the informants with ASDwas frequently thought to have been produced by a non-native speaker of Finnish, althoughall the informants were monolingual speakers of the language. The raters also found it difficuto understand what the informants with ASD were saying in the speech samples. The results ofthis study have clinical implications in terms of increasing awareness of prosodic deficiencieamong Finnish-speaking preadolescents with ASD.Tämä artikkeli käsittelee autismikirjon varhaisnuorten puheen prosodian havaittua epätyypillisyyttä. Kyseessä on pilottitutkimus, jonka aineisto koostuu viiden 11–13-vuotiaan suomea äidinkielenään puhuvan autismikirjon pojan ja kuuden samanikäisen neurotyypillisen pojan puhenäytteistä. Puhenäytteet on kerätty spontaanista puheesta. Aineiston pohjalta koostettiin havaintokoe, jonka suoritti 50 neurotyypillistä yliopisto-opiskelijaa. Tulokset osoittavat, että neurotyypilliset aikuiset pitävät autismikirjon varhaisnuorten puheen prosodiaa epätyypillisempänä kuin samanikäisten neurotyypillisten verrokkien puheen prosodiaa. Epätyypillisyyden vaikutelma voi akustisten analyysien ja arvioijien kirjallisten vastausten perusteella aiheutua esimerkiksi laulunomaisesta tai poukkoilevasta sävelkulusta, katkonaisesta puherytmistä, suurista sävelkulun vaihteluista tai poikkeavan tasaisesta sävelkulusta. Epätyypillisyyden vaikutelmaa voivat korostaa mm. morfosyntaktiset ongelmat (kuten esimerkiksi väärät sijamuodot tai katkonaiset lauserakenteet), epäselvät sanat tai veltto artikulointi. Nariseva ääni, joka oli tavallinen piirre puhenäytteissä, ei sen sijaan kiinnittänyt arvioijien huomiota. Autismikirjon poikien puheen arveltiin usein olevan ei-syntyperäisen suomen puhujan tuottamaa, vaikka kaikki informantit olivat syntyperäisiä, yksikielisiä suomen puhujia. Arvioijien oli myös usein vaikeaa ymmärtää, mitä autismikirjon henkilöt sanoivat puhenäytteissä. Tutkimuksen tulokset kasvattavat tietoisuutta prosodisista erityispiirteistä suomenkielisillä autismikirjon varhaisnuorilla

Perceived Atypicality of Speech Prosody of Finnish-Speaking Preadolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Tämä artikkeli käsittelee autismikirjon varhaisnuorten puheen prosodian havaittua epätyypillisyyttä. Kyseessä on pilottitutkimus, jonka aineisto koostuu viiden 11–13-vuotiaan suomea äidinkielenään puhuvan autismikirjon pojan ja kuuden samanikäisen neurotyypillisen pojan puhenäytteistä. Puhenäytteet on kerätty spontaanista puheesta. Aineiston pohjalta koostettiin havaintokoe, jonka suoritti 50 neurotyypillistä yliopisto-opiskelijaa. Tulokset osoittavat, että neurotyypilliset aikuiset pitävät autismikirjon varhaisnuorten puheen prosodiaa epätyypillisempänä kuin samanikäisten neurotyypillisten verrokkien puheen prosodiaa. Epätyypillisyyden vaikutelma voi akustisten analyysien ja arvioijien kirjallisten vastausten perusteella aiheutua esimerkiksi laulunomaisesta tai poukkoilevasta sävelkulusta, katkonaisesta puherytmistä, suurista sävelkulun vaihteluista tai poikkeavan tasaisesta sävelkulusta. Epätyypillisyyden vaikutelmaa voivat korostaa mm. morfosyntaktiset ongelmat (kuten esimerkiksi väärät sijamuodot tai katkonaiset lauserakenteet), epäselvät sanat tai veltto artikulointi. Nariseva ääni, joka oli tavallinen piirre puhenäytteissä, ei sen sijaan kiinnittänyt arvioijien huomiota. Autismikirjon poikien puheen arveltiin usein olevan ei-syntyperäisen suomen puhujan tuottamaa, vaikka kaikki informantit olivat syntyperäisiä, yksikielisiä suomen puhujia. Arvioijien oli myös usein vaikeaa ymmärtää, mitä autismikirjon henkilöt sanoivat puhenäytteissä. Tutkimuksen tulokset kasvattavat tietoisuutta prosodisista erityispiirteistä suomenkielisillä autismikirjon varhaisnuorilla.This study explores the perceived atypicality of the prosody of persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The data consist of speech samples produced by 11- to 13-year-old Finnish-speaking boys with ASD (n = 5), and by age- and gender-matched controls (n = 6). The speech samples have been collected from spontaneous speech. A perception test was administered to 50 neurotypical university students (n = 50). The results show that neurotypical adults find the prosody of preadolescent boys with ASD more atypical than the prosody of age- and gender-matched controls. According to the acoustic analyses and the written answers of the raters, the perceptions of atypicality may be generated by sing-song-like or bouncing pitch, disconnected speech rhythm, large pitch excursions or flatness of pitch. The impression of atypicality is further emphasized if there are occurrences of morpho-syntactic problems (such as wrong case endings and disconnected syntactic structures), if some words are unintelligible and if articulation is lethargic, for example. A creaky voice, which was common in the speech samples, did not attract the attention of the raters. The speech of the informants with ASD was frequently thought to have been produced by a non-native speaker of Finnish, although all the informants were monolingual speakers of the language. The raters also found it difficult to understand what the informants with ASD were saying in the speech samples. The results of this study have clinical implications in terms of increasing awareness of prosodic deficiencies among Finnish-speaking preadolescents with ASD.Peer reviewe

The latest development of the DELAD project for sharing corpora of speech disorders

Corpora of speech of individuals with communication disorders (CSD) are invaluable resources for education and research, but they are costly and hard to build and difficult to share for various reasons. DELAD, which means 'shared' in Swedish, is a project initiated by Professors Nicole Muller and Martin Ball in 2015 that aims to address this issue by establishing a platform for researchers to share datasets of speech disorders with interested audiences. To date four workshops have been held, where selected participants, covering various expertise including researchers in clinical phonetics and linguistics, speech and language therapy, infrastructure specialists, and ethics and legal specialists, participated to discuss relevant issues in setting up such an archive. Positive and steady progress has been made since 2015, including refurbishing the DELAD website (http://delad.net/) with information and application forms for researchers to join and share their datasets and linking with the CLARIN K-Centre for Atypical Communication Expertise (https://ace.ruhosting.nl/) where CSD can be hosted and accessed through the CLARIN B-Centres, The Language Archive (https://tla.mpi.nl/tools/tla-tools/) and TalkBank (https://talkbank.org/). The latest workshop, which was funded by CLARIN (Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure) was held as an online event in January 2021 on topics including Data Protection Impact Assessments, reviewing changes in ethics perspectives in academia on sharing CSD, and voice conversion as a mean to pseudonomise speech. This paper reports the latest progress of DELAD and discusses the directions for further advance of the initiative, with information on how researchers can contribute to the repository.Peer reviewe

Inferior parietal lobule and early visual areas support elicitation of individualized meanings during narrative listening

Introduction: When listening to a narrative, the verbal expressions translate into meanings and flow of mental imagery. However, the same narrative can be heard quite differently based on differences in listeners' previous experiences and knowledge. We capitalized on such differences to disclose brain regions that support transformation of narrative into individualized propositional meanings and associated mental imagery by analyzing brain activity associated with behaviorally assessed individual meanings elicited by a narrative. Methods: Sixteen right-handed female subjects were instructed to list words that best described what had come to their minds while listening to an eight-minute narrative during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The fMRI data were analyzed by calculating voxel-wise intersubject correlation (ISC) values. We used latent semantic analysis (LSA) enhanced with Wordnet knowledge to measure semantic similarity of the produced words between subjects. Finally, we predicted the ISC with the semantic similarity using representational similarity analysis. Results: We found that semantic similarity in these word listings between subjects, estimated using LSA combined with WordNet knowledge, predicting similarities in brain hemodynamic activity. Subject pairs whose individual semantics were similar also exhibited similar brain activity in the bilateral supramarginal and angular gyrus of the inferior parietal lobe, and in the occipital pole. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate, using a novel method to measure interindividual differences in semantics, brain mechanisms giving rise to semantics and associated imagery during narrative listening. During listening to a captivating narrative, the inferior parietal lobe and early visual cortical areas seem, thus, to support elicitation of individual meanings and flow of mental imagery.Peer reviewe

Lipreading a naturalistic narrative in a female population : Neural characteristics shared with listening and reading

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.Introduction: Few of us are skilled lipreaders while most struggle with the task. Neural substrates that enable comprehension of connected natural speech via lipreading are not yet well understood. Methods: We used a data-driven approach to identify brain areas underlying the lipreading of an 8-min narrative with participants whose lipreading skills varied extensively (range 6–100%, mean = 50.7%). The participants also listened to and read the same narrative. The similarity between individual participants’ brain activity during the whole narrative, within and between conditions, was estimated by a voxel-wise comparison of the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal time courses. Results: Inter-subject correlation (ISC) of the time courses revealed that lipreading, listening to, and reading the narrative were largely supported by the same brain areas in the temporal, parietal and frontal cortices, precuneus, and cerebellum. Additionally, listening to and reading connected naturalistic speech particularly activated higher-level linguistic processing in the parietal and frontal cortices more consistently than lipreading, probably paralleling the limited understanding obtained via lip-reading. Importantly, higher lipreading test score and subjective estimate of comprehension of the lipread narrative was associated with activity in the superior and middle temporal cortex. Conclusions: Our new data illustrates that findings from prior studies using well-controlled repetitive speech stimuli and stimulus-driven data analyses are also valid for naturalistic connected speech. Our results might suggest an efficient use of brain areas dealing with phonological processing in skilled lipreaders.Peer reviewe

Effect of remdesivir post hospitalization for COVID-19 infection from the randomized SOLIDARITY Finland trial

We report the first long-term follow-up of a randomized trial (NCT04978259) addressing the effects of remdesivir on recovery (primary outcome) and other patient-important outcomes one year after hospitalization resulting from COVID-19. Of the 208 patients recruited from 11 Finnish hospitals, 198 survived, of whom 181 (92%) completed follow-up. At one year, self-reported recovery occurred in 85% in remdesivir and 86% in standard of care (SoC) (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.47-1.90). We infer no convincing difference between remdesivir and SoC in quality of life or symptom outcomes (p > 0.05). Of the 21 potential long-COVID symptoms, patients reported moderate/major bother from fatigue (26%), joint pain (22%), and problems with memory (19%) and attention/concentration (18%). In conclusion, after a one-year follow-up of hospitalized patients, one in six reported they had not recovered well from COVID-19. Our results provide no convincing evidence of remdesivir benefit, but wide confidence intervals included possible benefit and harm.Peer reviewe

Immersive VR Assessment and Intervention Research of Individuals with Neurodevelopmental Disorders Is Dominated by ASD and ADHD : a Scoping Review

In this scoping review on 34 studies, we examined the use of immersive virtual reality (IVR) in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). IVR was mostly used in connection with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) for assessment of and intervention in social skills, and in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for assessment of executive performance. Diagnostic measures varied or were not available, and the level of evidence was generally observational/descriptive. Furthermore, few studies reported on feasibility and user experience and even fewer on human guidance and the generalization of intervention to everyday life. Our results suggest that human guidance during and after immersive VR may be crucial for generalization of skills. More research on IVR in other NDDs is needed.Peer reviewe

Embodied-Visual Practices during Conversational Repair : Scoping Review

Repair organization provides a powerful mechanism for handling problems of mutual understanding in natural conversation. Our study reviews past research on repair initiation and resolution practices involving embodied-visual practices, including eye gaze, facial expressions, hand gestures, and head and body movements. We charted details of theoretical background, methodology, and main findings for 31 studies. Embodiment was studied equally in connection with self- (SIR) and other-initiated repair (OIR); gaze and gestures were the most commonly studied embodied-visual practices. In OIR sequences, research has focused on upper body and gaze. In SIR sequences, more gestures were examined, but this may be specific to word search, which was predominant in SIR studies. In addition, embodied-visual practices can form gestalts independently from talk, and can occur early in the repair sequence, even pre-trouble source. Data were in Argentine Sign Language, Cha’palaa, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Turkish, and Yélî Dnye.Peer reviewe