Who is Talking? A Systematic Review on Voice Identity Processing in Autism
摘要
Efficient voice recognition is vital for social communication, but evidence on voice identity processing difficulties in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is mixed. This review clarifies current knowledge and future research needs. A systematic review of 22 studies examined unfamiliar voice discrimination, voice familiarity recognition, identification, neural correlates, gender/age perception, and self-voice recognition. ASD individuals show intact gender/age inference but impaired unfamiliar voice discrimination, likely due to low-level acoustic encoding issues. Voice familiarity recognition and identification are impaired in children but improve with age. Aside from perceptual functioning, high-level cognitive encoding difficulties are implied, suggestive for both apperceptive and associative phonagnosia. Neuroimaging showed altered brain responses in voice-sensitive areas associated with both perceptual processing and reward or salience.