Sample demographics.

The ability to selectively attend to one talker in the presence of competing talkers is crucial to communication in noisy, real-world environments. In this study, we investigated the relationship between intellectual ability and speech perception under multitalker conditions. Since neurodivergent individuals show a wide range of intellectual ability, from above average IQ to intellectual disability, intellectual ability may be an important individual characteristic that impacts multitalker speech perception, but this is not currently well understood. We tested individuals with autism, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and an age- and sex-matched comparison group, all with typical hearing. We found a strong positive correlation between IQ and multitalker speech perception thresholds. This demonstrates that deficits in intellectual ability, despite intact peripheral encoding of sound, are associated with difficulty listening under complex conditions for individuals with autism and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Future research is needed to investigate specific cognitive control mechanisms that contribute to difficulty listening under complex conditions. These findings suggest that audiological services to improve communication in real-world environments for neurodivergent individuals should be considered during clinical evaluations.在嘈杂的真实世界环境中，能够在多说话者竞争的场景下选择性关注单一位说话者的能力，对于人际沟通至关重要。本研究探究了多说话者言语感知（multitalker speech perception）与智力能力之间的关联。由于神经多样性（neurodivergent）个体的智力能力跨度极大，从高于平均智商（IQ）到智力障碍不等，因此智力能力可能是影响多说话者言语感知的重要个体特征，但目前学界对此尚未形成充分认知。我们招募了自闭症患者、胎儿酒精谱系障碍（fetal alcohol spectrum disorder）患者，以及年龄与性别匹配的正常听力对照组群体并开展测试。研究结果显示，智商（IQ）与多说话者言语感知阈值（multitalker speech perception thresholds）之间存在显著的正相关关系。这表明，尽管自闭症患者与胎儿酒精谱系障碍患者的外周声音编码功能完好，但智力能力缺陷与他们在复杂环境下的听觉理解困难存在关联。未来仍需开展相关研究，以探究导致复杂环境下听觉理解困难的具体认知控制机制。本研究结果提示，在临床评估过程中，应考虑为神经多样性个体提供可改善其真实世界沟通能力的听力学服务。