Atypical infant cries among incipient ASDs, developmentally delayed individuals, and language-impaired individuals

To better understand social communication during early human development, a growing literature is assessing the vocal production of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Previous studies have provided preliminary evidence that disruptions in cry acoustics may be part of an atypical vocal signature of autism early in life. In the current research we investigate the acoustic characteristics of cries elicited during real life events as well as cries elicited in experimentally standardized social interaction contexts (i.e. the Strange Situation Procedure -SSP). Using these approaches, we found that 15-month-olds at high risk for ASD had atypical acoustical patterns of distress vocalization (e.g. shorter cry utterances, higher fundamental frequencies). Then, next step was to assess using multiple neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques (EEG, fMRI, TMS, EKG, EMG, GSR, etc) the effect on parental perception of ASD distress vocalizations. Perceived distress engendered by ASD cries related to increased activation in brain regions associated with emotional processing