Turn-taking in ASD

Every day social interactions, such as conversations, are characterized by turn-taking, i.e. by the frequent switch between the speaker and listener. Individuals have to coordinate their actions with great precision to achieve such smooth and fast turn-transitions. For this, participants need to predict turn completions and initiate response planning well before the end of an ongoing turn. This study evaluates whether conversational turn-taking is impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants with ASD and a matched control sample listened to turns, extracted from natural conversations, that could be either predictable or unpredictable. Results indicate that in ASD the linguistic prediction component seems preserved, whereas either initiation of a response or precise timing, or both, are malfunctioning.