I’m here for it

Your work provides a very important perspective and I am really grateful for it. I’m sorry this happened to you.

Congratulations!! I cannot wait to see the cool stuff you do on your lab.

If these models are off b/c the motor system is abnormal, social behaviour will take the greatest hit. At any rate - let me do the studies and get back to you! We need more neuroimaging data in nonspeakers so we can understand the genesis of various profiles and tailor appropriate supports.

I don't think it's necessarily a stretch. It's well established that the motor system builds internal models of action that
that can serve as templates to predict and interpret the actions of others (who move in more complex and unpredictable ways than non-social stimuli).

I'd have to see that study, but they might not respond to social stimuli b/c they weren't getting the right (sensory) info needed to move their body appropriately (motor). Or maybe they had the info but couldn't mount the typical response. Or both. Or neither. Hard to disentangle without brain data.

It's hard to talk about motor without talking about sensory, given that they are right next to each other in the brain and the execution of any motor plan requires sensory info (this is why the term sensorimotor is so often used). But issues here will derail social behaviour, which will derail lang.

Reduced social orienting could *absolutely* result from an abnormal sensorimotor system. This behaviour requires that the one (1) process perceptual info about the other person and (2) move in response. Either could be derailed by mechanisms that have nothing to do with high-level social processes.

But if the primary underlying deficit is motor, one would also observe such coupling. Motor difficulties would prevent typical social behaviour and lead to an underestimation of receptive language. In some cases, this might be the simplest explanation (Occam's razor). That's our testable hypothesis.

I'll also say that given the modularity of brain function, it's entirely possible that there could be a vast disconnect between the ability to speak and the ability to understand. If one is profoundly apraxic, they would not be able to demonstrate understanding with any reliable form of behaviour.

I think the relationship between motor challenges and language challenges is very much up for debate, with a lot of work showing a tight coupling between the two. But we are absolutely looking at brain mechanisms of motor processing in this group - stay tuned.

I agree, diagnosing apraxia is notoriously hard for those who cannot speak and I hope that neuroimaging can help here. But motor deficits are key associated features supporting an autism diagnosis in the DSM-5, and so most autistic individuals have motor deficits in their diagnostic profile already.

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