Affective prosody recognition is an important area of research in autism spectrum conditions where difficulties in social cognition have been frequently observed. To probe into the mixed results reported in the literature, we conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis and examined potential factors that could explain the inconsistent results. Our literature search included six electronic databases for studies that compared the affective prosody recognition performance in individuals with autism spectrum condition with typically developing participants, which yielded 23 papers eligible for quantitative synthesis. Using a random-effects model, we obtained a moderate-to-large pooled effect (Hedges’ g = −0.63) for the overall affective prosody recognition performance of autism spectrum condition participants, which, however, reduced substantially (to −0.26) and became non-significant after the correction for publication bias. The number of answer codes was found to be a significant moderator for the effect estimate, whereas the number of speakers was not. Moreover, the magnitude of the pooled effect estimate varied across emotions. The findings suggested moderate differences in affective prosody recognition ability between autism spectrum condition and typically developing individuals, which reduced to marginal difficulties for autism spectrum condition when the impact of publication bias was taken into account. Diversity in the number of answer codes could have differential effects on affective prosody recognition performance in autism spectrum condition, which varied across emotions. The present review and meta-analysis demonstrated the insufficiency of research on affective prosody recognition in autism spectrum condition, highlighting a need for further exploration of the contributors and underlying mechanisms for specific affective prosody recognition difficulties.

Lay abstract

Differences in understanding others’ emotions and attitudes through features in speech (e.g. intonation) have been observed in individuals with autism spectrum conditions, which contribute greatly to their social communication challenges. However, some studies reported that individuals with autism spectrum condition performed comparably to typically developing individuals on affective prosody recognition. Here, we provide a comprehensive review with statistical analysis of 23 existing studies on this topic to examine potential factors that could explain the discrepancies. Compared with typically developing individuals, autism spectrum condition participants generally appeared to encounter more difficulties in affective prosody recognition. But this finding was likely due to the tendency of the existing research to overly focus on deficits in autism. The affective prosody recognition performance in individuals with autism spectrum condition was closely related to the number of answer options offered to them. Moreover, the degree of difficulty in affective prosody recognition encountered by individuals with autism spectrum condition varied across emotions. The findings of this systematic review highlighted the need for further research on affective prosody recognition in autism (e.g. studies that include tonal language speakers and autism spectrum condition individuals with lower cognitive or verbal abilities).

中文翻译：

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自闭症谱系条件下情感韵律的识别：系统评价和荟萃分析

情感韵律识别是自闭症谱系条件下的一个重要研究领域，其中经常观察到社会认知困难。为了探究文献中报告的混合结果，我们进行了荟萃分析的系统评价，并检查了可能解释不一致结果的潜在因素。我们的文献检索包括六个电子数据库，这些研究比较了自闭症谱系患者与正常发育参与者的情感韵律识别表现，产生了 23 篇符合定量综合条件的论文。使用随机效应模型，我们获得了中到大的汇集效应（Hedges' g = -0.63）自闭症谱系参与者的整体情感韵律识别表现，然而，这大大降低（至-0.26）并且在校正发表偏倚后变得不显着。发现答案代码的数量是效果估计的重要调节因素，而发言者的数量则不是。此外，汇总效应估计的大小因情绪而异。研究结果表明，自闭症谱系条件和正常发育个体之间的情感韵律识别能力存在适度差异，当考虑到发表偏倚的影响时，这降低了自闭症谱系条件的边际困难。答案代码数量的多样性可能对自闭症谱系条件下的情感韵律识别性能产生不同的影响，这种影响因情绪而异。本综述和荟萃分析表明，自闭症谱系条件下情感韵律识别的研究不足，强调需要进一步探索特定情感韵律识别困难的贡献者和潜在机制。

抽象

在患有自闭症谱系病症的个体中观察到通过语音特征（例如语调）理解他人情绪和态度的差异，这极大地促进了他们的社交沟通挑战。然而，一些研究报告称，患有自闭症谱系的个体在情感韵律识别方面的表现与通常发育的个体相当。在这里，我们对关于该主题的 23 项现有研究的统计分析进行了全面回顾，以检查可以解释差异的潜在因素。与正常发育的个体相比，自闭症谱系参与者在情感韵律识别方面普遍遇到更多困难。但这一发现可能是由于现有研究倾向于过度关注自闭症的缺陷。自闭症谱系患者的情感韵律识别表现与提供给他们的答案选项的数量密切相关。此外，自闭症谱系患者在情感韵律识别方面遇到的困难程度因情绪而异。该系统评价的结果强调了对自闭症情感韵律识别进行进一步研究的必要性（例如，包括声调语言使用者和自闭症谱系条件下认知或语言能力较低的个体的研究）。自闭症谱系患者在情感韵律识别方面遇到的困难程度因情绪而异。该系统评价的结果强调了对自闭症情感韵律识别进行进一步研究的必要性（例如，包括声调语言使用者和自闭症谱系条件下认知或语言能力较低的个体的研究）。自闭症谱系患者在情感韵律识别方面遇到的困难程度因情绪而异。该系统评价的结果强调了对自闭症情感韵律识别进行进一步研究的必要性（例如，包括声调语言使用者和自闭症谱系条件下认知或语言能力较低的个体的研究）。