Abnormal cortical voice processing in autism

Impairments in social interaction are a key feature of autism and are associated with atypical social information processing. Here we report functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results showing that individuals with autism failed to activate superior temporal sulcus (STS) voice-selective regions in response to vocal sounds, whereas they showed a normal activation pattern in response to nonvocal sounds. These findings suggest abnormal cortical processing of socially relevant auditory information in autism.