Can monitoring in language comprehension in Autism Spectrum Disorder be modulated? Evidence from event-related potentials

•We examine monitoring in language comprehension in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).•People with ASD are less inclined than people without ASD to monitor semantic perception.•Monitoring of semantic perception can be enhanced with explicit instructions.•Individuals with ASD do have the ability to process language for meaning.•Semantic differences in ASD may be related to a reduced tendency to monitor perception.

The present study examined language comprehension in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in light of monitoring. It was studied whether individuals with ASD monitor their language perception, and whether monitoring during language perception could be modulated with instructions. We presented higher-level (semantic) linguistic violations and lower-level (orthographic) linguistic violations in a free reading condition and in an instructed condition, recording event-related potentials. For control participants, a monitoring response as tapped by the P600 effect was found to semantically and orthographically incorrect input in both conditions. For participants with ASD, however, a monitoring response to semantically implausible input, tapped by the P600, was found only in the instructed condition. For orthographic errors monitoring was observed both in the free reading and in the instructed condition. This suggests that people with ASD are less inclined than typical individuals to monitor their perception of higher-level linguistic input, but that this can be enhanced with instructions.