Sensitivity to interaural level and time differences in individuals with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are reported to exhibit degraded performance in sound localization. This study investigated whether the sensitivity to the interaural level differences (ILDs) and interaural time differences (ITDs), major cues for horizontal sound localization, are affected in ASD. Thresholds for discriminating the ILD and ITD were measured for adults with ASD and age- and IQ-matched controls in a lateralization experiment. Results show that the ASD group exhibited higher ILD and ITD thresholds than the control group. Moreover, there was a significant diversity of ITD sensitivity in the ASD group, and it contained a larger proportion of participants with poor ITD sensitivity than the control group. The current study suggests that deficits in relatively low-level processes in the auditory pathway are implicated in degraded performance of sound localization in individuals with ASD. The results are consistent with the structural abnormalities and great variability in the morphology in the brainstem reported by neuroanatomical studies of ASD.