This Project Grant award of $200,000 was provided by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173). The funding supports research by Northwestern University to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying speech processing differences in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
The key objective is to advance understanding of how context-dependent auditory processing, which is important for perceiving social and emotional cues in speech, may be disrupted in ASD. The study will employ advanced EEG techniques to examine the interaction between top-down modulation and local representations of speech sounds, with the goal of identifying neural markers that relate to clinical-behavioral speech and language phenotypes in ASD. By elucidating the underlying biological mechanisms, this research has the potential to inform the development of more effective, targeted interventions to improve communication and social functioning for those with ASD.
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