Voice, Reward, and Language: Brain Responses to Maternal Speech in Infants at Varying Risk of ASD

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre 

The development of infants' social and language skills is deeply influenced by interactions with caregivers, especially through maternal speech. From the prenatal stage, infants display a preference for their mother's voice, which aids in phoneme adjustment, word learning, and emotion recognition. This highlights its critical role in fostering sociality and language acquisition. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), characterized by social and language delays, may involve atypical responses to maternal voices, though little is known about this in infancy. This study focuses on brain responses to maternal versus unfamiliar voices in infants at Elevated Likelihood (EL) of ASD, compared to Low Likelihood (LL) infants, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Previous research suggests EL infants may show weaker preferences and altered neural connectivity to maternal voices, potentially impacting language development. By examining cortical activation and connectivity at 6 months and tracking later developmental outcomes until 36 months old, this study aims to elucidate early neural mechanisms underlying ASD-related differences.