Activation of Thematic and Taxonomic Relations During Lexical-Semantic Processing in Autistic Children: Evidence From Eye Movements / Tianbi LI ; Ruoxi SHI ; Ran WEI ; Li YI in Autism Research, 18-5 (May 2025)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 18-5 (May 2025) . - p.1037-1049 Titre : Activation of Thematic and Taxonomic Relations During Lexical-Semantic Processing in Autistic Children: Evidence From Eye Movements Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Tianbi LI, Auteur ; Ruoxi SHI, Auteur ; Ran WEI, Auteur ; Li YI, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.1037-1049 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : autism  children  eye tracking  lexical-semantic network  lexical-semantic processing  taxonomic relations  thematic relations Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : ABSTRACT This study investigated the activation of thematic and taxonomic relations during online lexical-semantic processing in autistic children using an eye-tracking competition task. Thirty-six preschool-aged autistic children and 35 age-, gender-, and verbal-IQ-matched neurotypical (NT) children viewed arrays containing a target object, a thematically related competitor, a taxonomically related competitor, and an unrelated distractor while hearing the target word. Results revealed three key findings. First, both groups demonstrated activation of thematic and taxonomic relations during lexical processing, with comparable timing of activation onset. Second, while autistic children began to systematically orient attention to the target as quickly as NT children, they showed reduced overall attention to the target during lexical processing. Third, autistic children exhibited stronger activation of taxonomic relations and stronger taxonomic competition effects on target recognition compared to NT children, whereas their activation of thematic relations and thematic competition effects were comparable to NT children. These findings suggest that while the basic thematic and taxonomic activation processes remain robust in autistic children, and while their initial activation of the target and semantically related representations is as fast as that of NT children, the increased sensitivity to taxonomic relations in autistic children might interfere with the overall processing efficiency of target words. These results advance our understanding of lexical-semantic organization and processing in autism and provide implications for language intervention strategies. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.70023 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=558 [article] Activation of Thematic and Taxonomic Relations During Lexical-Semantic Processing in Autistic Children: Evidence From Eye Movements [texte imprimé] / Tianbi LI, Auteur ; Ruoxi SHI, Auteur ; Ran WEI, Auteur ; Li YI, Auteur . - p.1037-1049. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 18-5 (May 2025) . - p.1037-1049 Mots-clés : autism  children  eye tracking  lexical-semantic network  lexical-semantic processing  taxonomic relations  thematic relations Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : ABSTRACT This study investigated the activation of thematic and taxonomic relations during online lexical-semantic processing in autistic children using an eye-tracking competition task. Thirty-six preschool-aged autistic children and 35 age-, gender-, and verbal-IQ-matched neurotypical (NT) children viewed arrays containing a target object, a thematically related competitor, a taxonomically related competitor, and an unrelated distractor while hearing the target word. Results revealed three key findings. First, both groups demonstrated activation of thematic and taxonomic relations during lexical processing, with comparable timing of activation onset. Second, while autistic children began to systematically orient attention to the target as quickly as NT children, they showed reduced overall attention to the target during lexical processing. Third, autistic children exhibited stronger activation of taxonomic relations and stronger taxonomic competition effects on target recognition compared to NT children, whereas their activation of thematic relations and thematic competition effects were comparable to NT children. These findings suggest that while the basic thematic and taxonomic activation processes remain robust in autistic children, and while their initial activation of the target and semantically related representations is as fast as that of NT children, the increased sensitivity to taxonomic relations in autistic children might interfere with the overall processing efficiency of target words. These results advance our understanding of lexical-semantic organization and processing in autism and provide implications for language intervention strategies. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.70023 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=558

Prediction efficiency and incremental processing strategy during spoken language comprehension in autistic children: an eye-tracking study / Zihui HUA in Molecular Autism, 16 (2025)  

Public ISBD [article]  inMolecular Autism > 16 (2025) . - 39 Titre : Prediction efficiency and incremental processing strategy during spoken language comprehension in autistic children: an eye-tracking study Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Zihui HUA, Auteur ; Tianbi LI, Auteur ; Ruoxi SHI, Auteur ; Ran WEI, Auteur ; Li YI, Auteur ; Zihui Secondary HUA, Auteur ; Tianbi LI, Auteur ; Ruoxi SHI, Auteur ; Ran WEI, Auteur ; Li YI, Auteur Article en page(s) : 39 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : Humans  Child  Male  Female  Comprehension/physiology  Child, Preschool  Autistic Disorder/physiopathology/psychology  Eye-Tracking Technology  Speech Perception  Language  Eye Movements  Autism  Children  Eye tracking  Incremental processing  Language comprehension  Language processing  Prediction  Predictive processing  by Peking University’s research ethics committee (approval number: 2024-02-11).  Written informed consent was obtained from the parents or legal guardians of all  participants prior to their participation. All procedures were conducted in  accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Consent for publication: Not  applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : BACKGROUND: Language difficulties are common in autism, with several theoretical perspectives proposing that difficulties in forming and updating predictions may underlie the cognitive profile of autism. However, research examining prediction in the language domain among autistic children remains limited, with inconsistent findings regarding prediction efficiency and insufficient investigation of how autistic children incrementally integrate multiple semantic elements during language processing. This study addresses these gaps by investigating both prediction efficiency and incremental processing strategy during spoken language comprehension in autistic children compared to neurotypical peers. METHODS: Using the visual world paradigm, we compared 45 autistic children (3-8 years) with 52 age-, gender-, and verbal IQ-matched neurotypical children. Participants viewed arrays containing a target object and three semantically controlled distractors (agent-related, action-related, and unrelated) while listening to subject-verb-object structured sentences. Eye movements were recorded to analyze fixation proportions. We employed cluster-based permutation analysis to identify periods of sustained biased looking, growth curve analysis to compare fixation trajectories, and divergence point analysis to determine the onset timing of predictive looking. RESULTS: Both groups demonstrated predictions during spoken language comprehension and employed similar incremental processing strategies, showing increased fixations to both target objects and action-related distractors after verb onset despite the latter's incompatibility with the agent. However, autistic children exhibited reduced prediction efficiency compared to neurotypical peers, evidenced by significantly lower proportions of and slower growth rates in fixations to target objects relative to unrelated distractors, and delayed onset of predictive looking. Reduced prediction efficiency was associated with higher levels of autism symptom severity in the autistic group and increased autistic traits across both groups, with autism-related communication difficulties showing the most robust associations. LIMITATIONS: Our sample included only autistic children without language impairments, limiting generalizability to the broader autism spectrum. The task employed only simple sentence structures in controlled experimental settings, which may not fully capture language processing patterns in naturalistic communication contexts. CONCLUSIONS: While autistic children employ similar incremental processing strategies to neurotypical peers during language comprehension, they demonstrate reduced prediction efficiency. Autism symptom severity and autistic traits varied systematically with prediction efficiency, with autism-related communication difficulties showing the strongest associations. These findings enhance our understanding of language processing mechanisms in autism and suggest that interventions targeting language development might benefit from addressing prediction efficiency, such as providing additional processing time and gradually increasing the complexity of semantic integration tasks. En ligne : https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13229-025-00674-0 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=569 [article] Prediction efficiency and incremental processing strategy during spoken language comprehension in autistic children: an eye-tracking study [texte imprimé] / Zihui HUA, Auteur ; Tianbi LI, Auteur ; Ruoxi SHI, Auteur ; Ran WEI, Auteur ; Li YI, Auteur ; Zihui Secondary HUA, Auteur ; Tianbi LI, Auteur ; Ruoxi SHI, Auteur ; Ran WEI, Auteur ; Li YI, Auteur . - 39. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Molecular Autism > 16 (2025) . - 39 Mots-clés : Humans  Child  Male  Female  Comprehension/physiology  Child, Preschool  Autistic Disorder/physiopathology/psychology  Eye-Tracking Technology  Speech Perception  Language  Eye Movements  Autism  Children  Eye tracking  Incremental processing  Language comprehension  Language processing  Prediction  Predictive processing  by Peking University’s research ethics committee (approval number: 2024-02-11).  Written informed consent was obtained from the parents or legal guardians of all  participants prior to their participation. All procedures were conducted in  accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Consent for publication: Not  applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : BACKGROUND: Language difficulties are common in autism, with several theoretical perspectives proposing that difficulties in forming and updating predictions may underlie the cognitive profile of autism. However, research examining prediction in the language domain among autistic children remains limited, with inconsistent findings regarding prediction efficiency and insufficient investigation of how autistic children incrementally integrate multiple semantic elements during language processing. This study addresses these gaps by investigating both prediction efficiency and incremental processing strategy during spoken language comprehension in autistic children compared to neurotypical peers. METHODS: Using the visual world paradigm, we compared 45 autistic children (3-8 years) with 52 age-, gender-, and verbal IQ-matched neurotypical children. Participants viewed arrays containing a target object and three semantically controlled distractors (agent-related, action-related, and unrelated) while listening to subject-verb-object structured sentences. Eye movements were recorded to analyze fixation proportions. We employed cluster-based permutation analysis to identify periods of sustained biased looking, growth curve analysis to compare fixation trajectories, and divergence point analysis to determine the onset timing of predictive looking. RESULTS: Both groups demonstrated predictions during spoken language comprehension and employed similar incremental processing strategies, showing increased fixations to both target objects and action-related distractors after verb onset despite the latter's incompatibility with the agent. However, autistic children exhibited reduced prediction efficiency compared to neurotypical peers, evidenced by significantly lower proportions of and slower growth rates in fixations to target objects relative to unrelated distractors, and delayed onset of predictive looking. Reduced prediction efficiency was associated with higher levels of autism symptom severity in the autistic group and increased autistic traits across both groups, with autism-related communication difficulties showing the most robust associations. LIMITATIONS: Our sample included only autistic children without language impairments, limiting generalizability to the broader autism spectrum. The task employed only simple sentence structures in controlled experimental settings, which may not fully capture language processing patterns in naturalistic communication contexts. CONCLUSIONS: While autistic children employ similar incremental processing strategies to neurotypical peers during language comprehension, they demonstrate reduced prediction efficiency. Autism symptom severity and autistic traits varied systematically with prediction efficiency, with autism-related communication difficulties showing the strongest associations. These findings enhance our understanding of language processing mechanisms in autism and suggest that interventions targeting language development might benefit from addressing prediction efficiency, such as providing additional processing time and gradually increasing the complexity of semantic integration tasks. En ligne : https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13229-025-00674-0 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=569

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