# Advanced Assessment of Auditory-Vocal Affect in Autism with Speech and Music

> **NIH NIH K01** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $179,582

## Abstract

It is often said that humans are visual animals, but there is little doubt that our exceptional capacity for social
communication is auditory-vocal in nature. Importantly, this capacity is not limited to conversational speech, but
is also utilized in more abstract aspects of sound ranging over proselytizing, poetry, repetitive chant, and music.
A core feature of this speech-music continuum is the ability to convey affect through sound – made possible by
an auditory-vocal functionality that has evolved to reflexively attribute affect to voice-like stimuli. A system for
processing auditory-vocal affect is critical to human social behavior: its refinement predicts social fluency, as
individuals who are skilled at sharing in affect tend to be more socially integrated; and its impairment predicts
social deficits, e.g., in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder. Despite
its central role in social behavior, we lack insight into the neurobiology that underlies the processing of auditory-
vocal affect and why it fails to operate normally in prominent brain disorders. This gap in knowledge is directly
related to the absence of a psychometrically robust, objective, and efficient assay, i.e., a “gold standard” test of
Auditory-Vocal Affect. Accordingly, Aim 1 of this proposal is to develop a gold standard Test of Auditory-Vocal
Affect (the “TAVA”) and collect large-scale normative data to support it. To do so I will: (a) use a combination of
carefully designed speech and music stimuli to overcome obstacles faced by previous tests and tease apart
issues of language processing from a core impairment in auditory-vocal affect processing; and (b) deploy the
TAVA online. Aim 2 tests whether the TAVA can accurately discriminate adults with ASD from neurotypical adults
in a controlled laboratory study. And Aim 3 tests whether a single-dose of intranasally administered oxytocin vs.
placebo can “move the needle” on TAVA performance in ASD, as implicated in previous studies of affect
processing and ASD. My overarching hypothesis is that impairment in auditory-vocal affect functionality is a
fundamental but poorly defined dimension of the core social deficits that define ASD. My rationale is that deficits
in the perception of affect in speech are repeatedly described in ASD but, in contrast to visuo-facial affect, remain
under-interrogated and poorly understood. If I am successful, I will have defined a new standard for assessing
auditory-vocal affect functionality, suitable for behavioral phenotyping and as an objective assessment in ASD
specifically and in clinical research more generally. Furthermore, my results will provide a foundation for future
investigations into the neurobiological bases of auditory-vocal affect that promises to define their contribution to
social function and dysfunction in mental health. Finally, the research goals outlined here synergize with a
training plan that fills critical gaps in my basic science b...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10596158
- **Project number:** 5K01MH122730-04
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Daniel Liu Bowling
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $179,582
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10596158

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10596158, Advanced Assessment of Auditory-Vocal Affect in Autism with Speech and Music (5K01MH122730-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10596158. Licensed CC0.

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