A Randomized Controlled Trial for Audiovisual Multisensory Perception in Autistic Youth

Jacob I Feldman; Kacie Dunham; Gabriella E DiCarlo; Margaret Cassidy; Yupeng Liu; Evan Suzman; Zachary J Williams; Grace Pulliam; Sophia Kaiser; Mark T Wallace; Tiffany G Woynaroski

doi:10.1007/s10803-022-05709-6

A Randomized Controlled Trial for Audiovisual Multisensory Perception in Autistic Youth

J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 Nov;53(11):4318-4335. doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05709-6. Epub 2022 Aug 26.

Authors

Jacob I Feldman^{1

2}, Kacie Dunham^{3

4}, Gabriella E DiCarlo^{3

5

6}, Margaret Cassidy^{7

8}, Yupeng Liu^{7

9}, Evan Suzman^{10

11}, Zachary J Williams^{12

3

4

6}, Grace Pulliam⁷, Sophia Kaiser¹³, Mark T Wallace^{12

3

4

14

15

16

17}, Tiffany G Woynaroski^{18

12

3

14}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, MCE 8310 South Tower, 1215 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA. [email protected].
² Frist Center for Autism & Innovation, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. [email protected].
³ Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁴ Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁵ Mass General Brigham Neurology Residency Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁶ Medical Scientist Training Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁷ Neuroscience Undergraduate Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁸ National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁹ Washington University School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
¹⁰ Master's Program in Biomedical Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
¹¹ Southwestern School of Medicine, University of Texas, Dallas, TX, USA.
¹² Frist Center for Autism & Innovation, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
¹³ Cognitive Studies Undergraduate Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
¹⁴ Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, MCE 8310 South Tower, 1215 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA.

Abstract

Differences in audiovisual integration are commonly observed in autism. Temporal binding windows (TBWs) of audiovisual speech can be trained (i.e., narrowed) in non-autistic adults; this study evaluated a computer-based perceptual training in autistic youth and assessed whether treatment outcomes varied according to individual characteristics. Thirty autistic youth aged 8-21 were randomly assigned to a brief perceptual training (n = 15) or a control condition (n = 15). At post-test, the perceptual training group did not differ, on average, on TBWs for trained and untrained stimuli and perception of the McGurk illusion compared to the control group. The training benefited youth with higher language and nonverbal IQ scores; the training caused widened TBWs in youth with co-occurring cognitive and language impairments.

Keywords: audiovisual integration; autism spectrum disorder; multisensory integration; perceptual training; temporal binding window.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

Acoustic Stimulation
Adolescent
Adult
Auditory Perception
Autism Spectrum Disorder* / therapy
Autistic Disorder* / therapy
Humans
Illusions*
Language
Photic Stimulation
Speech Perception*
Visual Perception

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding