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Abnormal cortical voice processing in autism

Nature Neuroscience volume 7, pages 801–802 (2004)Cite this article

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.

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Figure 1: Voice versus non-voice—group analysis.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C. Pallier and J. B. Poline for support and advice and L. Mottron for useful comments on the manuscript. Supported by the National Science and Engineering Council of Canada; the Fonds de Recherche en Santé du Québec; the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, INSERM, France; the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, CEA, France; the France Foundation and the France-Télecom Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ERM 0205, INSERM-CEA, DRM, DSV, Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, 4, place du General Leclerc, Orsay, 91406, France

    Hélène Gervais, Nathalie Boddaert, Arnaud Coez, Ignacio Sfaello, Francis Brunelle, Yves Samson & Mônica Zilbovicius

  2. Centre de Recherche en Neuropsychologie et Cognition (CERNEC), Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Pascal Belin

  3. Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Pascal Belin

  4. Service de Radiologie Pédiatrique, Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, 149, rue de Sèvres, Paris, 75015, France

    Nathalie Boddaert & Francis Brunelle

  5. Service de Psychiatrie, Hôpital Henri-Mondor, AP-HP, 40 rue Mesly, Créteil, 94000, France

    Marion Leboyer

  6. INSERM Unité 619, CHU Bretonneau, 2 bd. Tonnelle, Tours, 37000, France

    Catherine Barthélémy

  7. Service des Urgences Cérébro-Vasculaires, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, AP-HP, 47, bd. Hôpital, Paris, 75013, France

    Yves Samson

Authors
  1. Hélène Gervais
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  2. Pascal Belin
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  3. Nathalie Boddaert
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  4. Marion Leboyer
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  5. Arnaud Coez
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  6. Ignacio Sfaello
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  7. Catherine Barthélémy
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  8. Francis Brunelle
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  9. Yves Samson
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  10. Mônica Zilbovicius
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mônica Zilbovicius.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Voice versus non-voice - individual analysis. Coronal slices of each subject illustrate the activation peaks for the contrast voice minus non voice in individual analysis, P < 0.001. (PDF 225 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Individual data. (PDF 20 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Intra-group analysis. (PDF 17 kb)

Supplementary Table 3

Inter-group analysis. (PDF 17 kb)

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Cite this article

Gervais, H., Belin, P., Boddaert, N. et al. Abnormal cortical voice processing in autism. Nat Neurosci 7, 801–802 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1291

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