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.\tThis 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.

日常社交互动，诸如对话，通常以轮流发言为特征，即发言者与听众之间频繁的角色切换。个体必须精确协调其行为以实现如此流畅且迅速的角色转换。为此，参与者需在当前发言结束前准确预测轮次完成，并着手进行回应规划。本研究旨在评估自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者是否在对话轮流发言方面存在障碍。ASD患者与匹配的控制样本一起聆听了自然对话中提取的轮次，这些轮次可能是可预测的，也可能是不可预测的。结果显示，在ASD患者中，语言预测成分似乎得到保留，而回应发起或精确的时机控制，或两者兼而有之，均存在功能障碍。