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Pitch Discrimination and Melodic Memory in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Title: Pitch Discrimination and Melodic Memory in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Language: English
Authors: Stanutz, Sandy, Wapnick, Joel, Burack, Jacob A.
Source: Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice. Feb 2014 18(2):137-147.
Availability: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 11
Publication Date: 2014
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Autism, Children, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Early Adolescents, Comparative Analysis, Auditory Discrimination, Auditory Perception, Music, Short Term Memory, Long Term Memory, Cognitive Ability, Language Acquisition, Cognitive Processes, Gifted, Audiology, Clinical Diagnosis, Asperger Syndrome, Foreign Countries
Geographic Terms: Canada
Assessment and Survey Identifiers: Leiter International Performance Scale, Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule
DOI: 10.1177/1362361312462905
ISSN: 1362-3613
Abstract: Background: Pitch perception is enhanced among persons with autism. We extended this finding to memory for pitch and melody among school-aged children. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate pitch memory in musically untrained children with autism spectrum disorders, aged 7-13 years, and to compare it to that of age- and IQ-matched typically developing children. Methods: The children were required to discriminate isolated tones in two differing contexts as well to remember melodies after a period of 1 week. The tasks were designed to employ both short- and long-term memory for music. For the pitch discrimination task, the children first had to indicate whether two isolated tones were the same or different when the second was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Second, the children discriminated the tones within the context of melody. They were asked whether two melodies were the same or different when the leading tone of the second melody was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Long-term memory for melody was also investigated, as the children attempted to recall four different two-bar melodies after 1 week. Results: The children with autism spectrum disorders demonstrated elevated pitch discrimination ability in the single-tone and melodic context as well as superior long-term memory for melody. Pitch memory correlated positively with scores on measures of nonverbal fluid reasoning ability. Conclusion: Superior short- and long-term pitch memory was found among children with autism spectrum disorders. The results indicate an aspect to cognitive functioning that may predict both enhanced nonverbal reasoning ability and atypical language development.
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 55
Entry Date: 2014
Accession Number: EJ1019002
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0093875647;f9d01feb.14;2014Jan22.12:58;v2.2.460</anid> <title id="AN0093875647-1">Pitch discrimination and melodic memory in children with autism spectrum disorders </title> <p>AUTspautAutismAutism1362-36131461-7005SAGE PublicationsSage UK: London, England10.1177/136236131246290510.1177_1362361312462905ArticlesPitch discrimination and melodic memory in children with autism spectrum disordersStanutzSandyWapnickJoelBurackJacob AMcGill University, CanadaSandy Stanutz, 1105 Edward Street, Manotick, ON K4M 1G8, Canada. Email: sandy.stanutz@mail.mcgill.ca22014182137147© The Author(s) 20122012The National Autistic Society, SAGE PublicationsBackground:Pitch perception is enhanced among persons with autism. We extended this finding to memory for pitch and melody among school-aged children.Objective:The purpose of this study was to investigate pitch memory in musically untrained children with autism spectrum disorders, aged 7–13 years, and to compare it to that of age- and IQ-matched typically developing children.Methods:The children were required to discriminate isolated tones in two differing contexts as well to remember melodies after a period of 1 week. The tasks were designed to employ both short- and long-term memory for music. For the pitch discrimination task, the children first had to indicate whether two isolated tones were the same or different when the second was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Second, the children discriminated the tones within the context of melody. They were asked whether two melodies were the same or different when the leading tone of the second melody was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Long-term memory for melody was also investigated, as the children attempted to recall four different two-bar melodies after 1 week.Results:The children with autism spectrum disorders demonstrated elevated pitch discrimination ability in the single-tone and melodic context as well as superior long-term memory for melody. Pitch memory correlated positively with scores on measures of nonverbal fluid reasoning ability.Conclusion:Superior short- and long-term pitch memory was found among children with autism spectrum disorders. The results indicate an aspect to cognitive functioning that may predict both enhanced nonverbal reasoning ability and atypical language development.absolute pitchautismmelodic memorypitch discriminationvisual nonverbal reasoning abilityIntroductionPersons with autism show enhanced perception of pitch in comparison to typically developing (TD) persons (Bonnel et al., 2003; Heaton, 2003; Heaton et al., 1998). Enhanced pitch perception in autism appears to be attributable to strengths in both short- and long-term memory. For example, enhanced short-term memory for pitch was supported by the finding that young adults and adolescents with high-functioning autism discriminated between two tones 18 cents apart, or less than 1/4 of a semitone, more accurately than TD persons matched at the group level for IQ (Bonnel et al., 2003).Similarly, enhanced long-term memory for pitch was supported by evidence that school-aged boys with autism had more accurate long-term memory for pitch sounds over speech sounds when paired with pictures, as compared to IQ-matched TD children who were better able to remember the speech sounds (Heaton et al., 1998). In addition, an exceptional form of long-term memory for pitch, referred to as absolute pitch (AP) ability, is well documented among musical savants who have autism (Hermelin, 2001; Miller, 1999; Rimland and Fein, 1988; Sloboda et al., 1985). AP is a rare form of memory that enables the pitches of notes to be classified out of context. In typical populations, this exceptional memory has an estimated prevalence of 1 in 10,000 (Profita and Bidder, 1988), but the incidence of AP among persons with autism is estimated to be as high as 1 in 20 (Brown et al., 2003). This estimate was calculated from a survey of 5400 parents of children with autism, where musical memory ability for melody and individual pitch were by far the most reported of the savant abilities (Rimland, 1988). Although tests of AP ability were not conducted, parental reports suggested behaviors associated with AP ability across the spectrum of autism. To what degree these children would have tested positively for a test of AP ability is unknown. However, the indication of enhanced musical memory in children with autism raises the question of whether the AP ability of musical savants is reflected in nonsavant populations with autism as enhanced pitch memory. Traditionally, AP ability has generally been considered to be an absolute ability that one either possesses or does not possess, but researchers have recognized varying levels to the skill (Baharloo et al., 1998; Bermudez and Zatorre, 2009). This kind of classification may help to explain enhanced memory for pitch and melody among persons with autism who do not have musical savant syndrome.Children with autism demonstrate high levels of musical ability in comparison to TD children (Armstrong and Darrow, 1999) both in the replication of tone sequences (Thaut, 1988) and in the sophistication of improvised melodic sequences (Applebaum et al., 1979). This is evidence that young children with autism appear to be both attending to and retaining the musical harmonic conventions of culture, with respect to maintaining the key of a musical excerpt, in a developmentally unusual manner. For example, TD preschool children have difficulty in retaining a tonal center or singing in key (Flowers and Dunne-Sousa, 1990; Moog, 1976; Moorhead and Pond, 1978), and there is evidence that many TD children up to 11 years of age do not accurately remember semitones (Bentley, 1966). In contrast, Heaton (2003) found that children with high-functioning autism have enhanced memory for chord tones, a surprising finding given the sophistication of this musical task. Thus, developmental differences in pitch memory are evident between TD children and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and there is evidence that this developmental difference may reveal the cognitive profile of a new subgrouping of children along the spectrum of autism. For example, Heaton et al. (2008b) found an unusually superior memory for melodic intervals among a subgroup of high- and low-functioning children and adolescents with autism, while Altgassen et al. (2005) found enhanced pitch memory for chord tones among a group of children with Asperger syndrome. However, Bonnel et al. (2010) found no differences in short-term memory between a group of persons with Asperger syndrome and a TD group aged 15–32 years in their pitch discrimination of two tones less than a semitone apart, while enhanced performance was reported for an age-matched group with autism.Enhanced memory for pitch among TD populations is associated with differences in neural structure. For example, evidence from event-related potential (ERP) studies indicates that AP possessors do not update working memory (Zatorre, 2003). In addition, musicians with AP ability have a leftward asymmetry of the brain, reflective of a larger structural difference in the auditory association areas located on the planum temporale (Schlaug et al., 1995). Taken together, these findings suggest that AP possessors in TD populations access pitch information through a different neural pathway than non-AP possessors and point to possible developmental differences in the maturation of enhanced pitch memory.Therefore, enhanced pitch memory in autism could also be associated with developmental differences in neural structure. This idea is supported by ERP evidence of left versus right hemisphere asymmetry during the processing of pitch information among children with autism. For example, 6-year-old children with autism showed faster left hemisphere reactivity in comparison to TD children matched for age when passively listening to infrequent changes of pitch (Gomot et al., 2002). However, 12-year-old children with ASD showed faster right brain reactivity than age-matched comparison participants when passively listening to three infrequent tones (Gage et al., 2003). These studies indicate developmental asymmetries of brain function that may predict strong pitch memory in adulthood. Similarly, developmental differences in neural structure emerge when comparing speech and pitch processing strategies between children with autism and TD children (Lepistö et al., 2005). Children with autism showed enhanced discrimination of both pure tones and vowel sounds as indicated by enlarged ERPs. However, when children with autism passively listen to speech-like sounds, there is less activation of the left speech-related areas, a reverse asymmetry than that found among TD children (Boddaert et al., 2004). Similarly, the left hemisphere language areas are enlarged relative to the right among TD children, but the reverse is often the case among children with autism (Siegal and Blades, 2003). This asymmetry may be attributed to developmental differences in the maturation of pitch memory as areas in the right hemisphere, such as Heschl’s gyrus and superior temporal gyrus, play an important role in pitch computation (Peretz, 2001; Zatorre, 1988). Such differences could underlie a structural component to many of the auditory difficulties in autism, such as increased sensitivity to complex sounds (Khalfa et al., 2004; Samson et al., 2006) and problems segregating speech sounds from vowel sounds in certain situations (Alcantára et al., 2004). Atypical development of pitch memory among children with ASD may be a factor in processing complex speech sounds, thereby contributing to both language difficulties and enhanced pitch memory in autism.Enhanced memory for pitch information in autism is thought to be analogous to abilities in the visual domain with regard to attention to detail (Mottron and Belleville, 1993). Mottron and Belleville observed that the drawings of one savant draftsman always grew from one unimportant detail. In contrast, a more common strategy among TD persons is to make an outline and fill in the details. The draftsman’s strategy, in which the details are taken out of their context in order to recreate the big picture in a reverse contextualizing process, is an example of weak central coherence (WCC), and it is thought to be a cognitive style that is specific to autism (Shah and Frith, 1993). According to WCC theory, cognition in autism is driven by the need to process detail at the expense of integrating details within the large framework of context (Happé, 1999). AP ability has been viewed as an example of WCC in that enhanced memory for individual pitch information results from taking individual notes out of context apart from the scales and melodies they form. WCC is also thought to be a strategy used in tests of nonverbal reasoning ability, such as the block design task in which children with autism typically show elevated performance. Similar cognitive processes are likely accessed among persons with autism when remembering pitch or visual information, and this may also be the case for TD populations. Scores on tests of nonverbal reasoning ability were found to improve in TD groups after listening to music (Rauscher et al., 1994), indicating possible symbiotic cognitive processes between nonverbal reasoning and pitch processing.An alternative approach with regard to cognitive style in autism is the enhanced perceptual functioning (EPF) model, according to which, persons with autism show a preference in processing detail over context, although the preference does not necessarily create an imbalance between the two levels of processing (Mottron 2005). However, studies that indicate persons with autism use both detail and contextual strategies when discriminating pitch have not been replicated consistently. For example, Heaton (2005) found that superior pitch discrimination of tone pairs in a group of children with ASD did not predict superior detection of small contextual changes in melody pairs. Furthermore, Altgassen (2005) failed to replicate Heaton’s findings of either superior long-term memory for individual pitch (Heaton et al., 1998) or superior short-term memory for pitch within the context of a chord (Heaton, 2003) in a group of children with autism.An underlying theme in the research literature concerning pitch processing among persons with autism is the role of enhanced memory for pitch information. Whether the aim of the research was to discriminate between two pitches as the same or different (Bonnel et al., 2003), to remember individual pitches over the long term (Heaton et al., 1998b) or within the context of a chord (Heaton 2003), to categorize intervals (Heaton et al., 2008b), or to recognize an altered note within a melody (Mottron, et al., 2000) enhanced memory for pitch was demonstrated.The purpose of the present study was to extend the previous research in a number of ways with regard to both short- and long-term memory for pitch in autism and to examine the relationship between pitch memory and other areas of cognitive functioning. The research questions were as follows:Would the finding of superior short-term memory for pitch in young adults and adolescence with autism in their discrimination of tone pairs (Bonnel et al., 2003) apply to school-aged children with ASD?Would children with ASD outperform TD children in their discrimination of pitch within the context of a melody when more demands on memory were required? How would their performance fit with the current theories of cognitive function in autism?Would the previous finding in autism of superior long-term memory of single tones (Heaton et al., 1998) extend to long-term memory for melody? Would children with ASD outperform TD children in remembering a melody over a period of a week?Would superior pitch memory in children with ASD positively correlate with parental reports of their child’s sensitivities to noise?Is nonverbal reasoning ability among children with autism connected to enhanced pitch memory? Are the various measures of pitch memory correlated with visual nonverbal reasoning ability among both children with ASD and TD children?MethodParticipantsThe participants included 25 children with ASD (6 girls) ranging in age from 7 years 10 months to 13 years 2 months (M = 10 years 8 months) and 25 TD children (14 girls) ranging in age from 8 years 3 months to 12 years 6 months (M = 10 years 5 months). The mean chronological ages of the two groups were not significantly different from one another (t = 0.628, df = 48, p > .05). Based on the Brief IQ measure of the Leiter International Performance Scale–Revised (Leiter-R) (Roid and Miller, 1997), the average mean IQ of the children with ASD was 100.7 (standard deviation (SD) = 18.3) and TD children was 106.4 (SD = 10.6). These mean scores did not differ from each other (t = 1.34, df = 48, p > .05).All participants with ASD were diagnosed based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV, 1994) criteria for ASD by psychologists in Ottawa, Canada. Two of the participants had been diagnosed using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. In all, 16 children were diagnosed at hospitals, 4 in schools, and 5 in private practice. In all, 16 children were diagnosed as having pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), 7 were diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, and 2 children had been diagnosed with autistic disorder. None of these children had a dual diagnosis of ASD and other developmental disorders. All of the children with ASD had IQs above 70. Four of these children had tested within the gifted range of intelligence as determined by school psychologists. Of the four gifted children, three were diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and one with autistic disorder. The characteristics of the participants with ASD are presented in Table 1.Table 1.Characteristics of participants with ASD.Autistic disorderAsperger syndromePDD-NOSParticipants2617Gifted12Profoundly gifted1Music lessons 1 year11Normal hearing audiology2314Normal hearing parental account33Hospital diagnoses2212School psychologist diagnoses31Private practice diagnoses14ASD: autism spectrum disorders; PDD-NOS: pervasive developmental disorder–not otherwise specified; Gifted: performance is in the top 2% in two out of three areas on measures of IQ; Profoundly gifted: performance is in the top 1% in two out of three areas on measures of IQ.In all, 19 of the children in the ASD group had undergone a standard audiometric procedure. All children who underwent the procedure scored within the normal range of hearing; 25 dB hearing level within the standard range of frequencies (250–8000 Hz). Normal hearing in the remainder of the children with ASD and in the TD group was ascertained by parental account. In all, 14 of the children with ASD experienced aversions to loud sounds as reported by the parent.All but four of the participants in the study were musically untrained. One 10-year-old child with autistic disorder and one 10-year-old TD child had been taking piano lessons for 1 year while one 13-year-old child with PDD-NOS and one 12-year-old TD child had been involved in a band program at school for a period of 1 year; thus, both the TD and ASD groups were similar in their background of limited musical training.ProcedurePrior to commencing the research, the Research and Ethics Board of Mcgill University approved the study and granted a certificate of research involving humans. The parent of each participant signed a letter of informed consent allowing their child to participate in the study, and all the children assented to participate. The study was conducted in two sessions separated by 1 week. Prior to beginning the first session, referred to as Music Game 1, the Brief IQ measure of the Leiter-R (Roid and Miller, 1997) was administered while the parent of each child filled out a questionnaire concerning the specific diagnoses, birthdate, and auditory sensitivities of their child. Music Game 1 consisted of a paired single-tone pitch discrimination task, followed by a melodic memory encoding task. A week later, the child returned to complete the second session referred to as Music Game 2, during which a melodic memory task was presented first followed by a pitch discrimination task within the context of melody. Each child achieved 70% on a series of practice trials prior to commencing each music game to ensure that each child understood the directives.ApparatusMicrosoft PowerPoint 2004 for Macintosh was used to create and present all tasks in the study. All narrations, single-tone pairs, and both single melodies and melody pairs were recorded using a Yamaha keyboard model P 90, in conjunction with Peak LE 5 recording software. All sounds were recorded in stereo using a 44.1 kHz sampling rate and 32-bit resolution. They were saved as Audio Interchange Format Files (AIFF) on an Apple MacBook computer. The AIFF files then were imported into PowerPoint. The spoken narrations of the music games were recorded using a microphone attached to a set of Casonic model EP-790 headphones. The narration files were then modified by the SoundSoap plug-in within Peak in order to eliminate ambient noise recorded during this process.MeasuresBrief IQ Leiter-RThe children completed the visualization and reasoning battery Brief IQ measures of the Leiter-R (Roid and Miller, 1997). The Leiter-R is a measure of nonverbal fluid reasoning ability that is uninfluenced by educational, social, or family experience. The Leiter-R yields a nonverbal IQ measurement that correlates well with other IQ instruments.Music Game 1 design: pitch discrimination of tone pairs and presentation of four melodiesFor the pitch discrimination task, children listened to two consecutive tones and then indicated whether the tones were the same or different by activating a blue button labeled “same” or gray button labeled “different” on the computer screen. Once a choice had been made, the next trial was activated. Four middle-range piano tone pairs were presented randomly throughout the 36-pitch discrimination trials: G3 (196.00 Hz), C4 (261.63 Hz), F4 (349.23 Hz), and A4 (440 Hz). Each tone and its pair were presented a total of nine times. In three of the presentations, the pairs of notes were identical in frequency. The remaining pairs were altered so that the second note of the pair was 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Thus, all pitch alterations were smaller than half of a semitone. The tones were 1 s in duration, and they were separated by 1 s of silence. The participants chose to listen to sounds either through a set of NexxTech headphones, model 3319154, or through the internal speakers of the computer. Each participant was required to achieve a 70% success rate in a series of practice trials before commencing the 36 trials of the study.In the second half of Music Game 1, 4 two-measure songs were presented (see Figure 1). Each song was paired with a picture of a bird, fish, rabbit, or cat. The songs were in 4/4 time. The bird, cat, and rabbit songs were in the major keys of F#, Bb, and Ab, respectively, and the fish song was in the key of c# minor. There were six blocks of four trials. The four animal songs played randomly within each block. In blocks 1, 3, and 5, the animal songs were presented paired with their respective pictures. In the second block, the animal songs played without the presentation of the pictures. In blocks 4 and 6, an animal song played while all four animal pictures were presented. The child was instructed to click the mouse on the picture of the animal “that liked the song best.” After the child made a choice, the computer indicated which animal song had played. In this way, the child received feedback for each choice. Once the child accurately identified three or more correct melodies in one block, Music Game 1 terminated. If a child identified three or more correct melodies by the fourth block, the researcher allowed the child to finish blocks 5 and 6 and then the game was terminated. If the participant had not achieved a 75% success rate by the sixth block, the game was reset to blocks 5 and 6. The purpose of this section was for the participants to memorize the melodies and to associate each melody with its respective picture. No data was reported at this time. Music Game 1 was approximately 40 min long.Figure 1.Animal songs: (a) bird song, (b) cat song, (c) rabbit song, and (d) fish song.Music Game 2 design: melodic memory and pitch discrimination within a melodic contextA week after being administered Music Game 1, each participant returned to complete the second 40-min game, Music Game 2, which involved one block of 16 melodic memory trials and one block of 36 melodic pitch discrimination trials. For the melodic memory trials, the participants listened to an animal song and then clicked the mouse on the picture of the animal “that liked the song best.” Feedback concerning the participants’ choice was not given at this time nor was there exposure to the melodies prior to the commencement of the 16 trials.For the melodic pitch discrimination task, the participants were required to discriminate whether two melodies were the same or different depending on whether the leading tone of the second melody was altered. The animal melodies were altered and ordered as in the paired single-tone pitch discrimination task in Music Game 1. Animal melodies were paired with either the same or different version of the same song. Each animal song pair was presented a total of nine times. Three of the trials included identical melody pairs, whereas in six of the pairs, the leading tone in the second bar of the second melody was altered, so that it was 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. The leading tone preceded the tonic in each animal song, implying a strong dominant tonic harmony. The order was randomized as in the pitch discrimination task of Music Game 1. Each participant responded by indicating whether the melodies were the same or different. Before commencing these melodic discrimination trials, each participant achieved a 70% success rate on a series of practice trials. Paired melodies were 10 s in duration. The melody pairs began after 1 s of silence, and 1.5 s of silence separated each melody of the pair.ResultsAnalysis of variance: pitch discrimination levels and contexts by diagnosisA three-way mixed design analysis of variance was performed to determine differences in pitch discrimination between the children with ASD and the TD children. The dependent variables were the means for the correct responses out of 12 for each difficulty level (see Table 2). The between-group factor was diagnosis (children with ASD and TD children). Within-group factors were difficulty levels (<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref1">25</reflink>, 35, or 45 cents flat or sharp and same) and context (single-note task vs melodic task). A main effect was found for diagnosis (p < .03) and levels (p < .01). In addition, a significant interaction was found between levels and diagnosis (p < .04) and between levels and context (p < .01).Table 2.Pitch discrimination in the single-tone task.Group (n = 25)Same25 cents35 cents45 centsMSDMSDMSDMSDASD10.881.627.202.979.302.2910.68*1.58Typical10.681.606.422.958.282.749.662.25ASD: autism spectrum disorders; SD: standard deviation.Maximum score = 12. The means reflect the correct response out of a maximum of 12. Twenty-five participants in each group.*p < .05.The means of the children with ASD and the TD children on each level (<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref2">25</reflink>, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat and same) and context (single-tone task and melodic task) were subjected to a Fisher’s post hoc test for least significance in a series of paired-sample t-tests. The t-tests indicated that the performance means for the children with ASD were significantly higher than for the TD children at the 25-cent (t = −3.562, p = .05, df = 24) and 35-cent (t = −2.352, p = .05, df = 24) levels in the melodic task (see Table 3) and approached significance at the 45-cent level (t = −1.971, p < .06, df = 24). The means of the children with ASD were significantly higher at the 45-cent level in the single-tone task (t = −2.091, p < .05, df = 24; see Table 2). The ASD children outperformed the TD children in the 45-cent paired single-tone discrimination task and the 25- and 35-cent melodic discrimination task and were also more accurate at every level except same when discriminating pitch in the context of a melody (see Table 3).Table 3.Pitch discrimination in the melodic task.Group (n = 25)Same25 cents35 cents45 centsMSDMSDMSDMSDASD9.801.989.18*2.389.66*2.2110.442.10Typical9.921.916.663.608.282.719.422.39ASD: autism spectrum disorders; SD: standard deviation.Maximum score = 12. Twenty-five participants in each group.*p < .05.Comparison of performance means: melodic memory taskThe data of two participants, one from each group, were removed from the scores for melodic memory, as their scores were below chance. An independent t-test determined that the group means (children with ASD: M = 12.25; TD children: M = 10.17), excluding outliers, were statistically significant from each other (t = −2.26, p < .05, df = 24). A box plot comparing the spread of scores for the two groups is shown in Figure 2. One of the TD children performed at ceiling levels with a score of 16 correct (100%), while eight of the children with ASD performed at or near ceiling levels, five with scores of 16 correct (100%), and three with scores of 15 correct (94%). Two of the children with ASD who scored 100% were 7 and 8 years of age. The 7-year-old child was the youngest participant in the study.Figure 2.Melodic memory performance. Melodic memory: the total number of correctly identified melodies.Correlations between pitch discrimination and melodic memory and nonverbal fluid reasoning abilityPearson product-moment correlations were calculated between the overall scores from the Leiter-R Brief IQ and the various experimental tasks. Positive correlations were found between scores on the Leiter-R and scores on the pitch discrimination tasks in the single-tone context (r = .38, p < .001) and on the melodic memory task (r = .31, p < .05) but not between the scores on the Leiter-R and those on the pitch discrimination tasks in the melodic context. Correlations were then calculated between the TD Leiter-R Brief IQ score and the TD scores on the various experimental tasks. The same procedure was used for the ASD scores. A positive correlation was found between the scores on the Leiter-R Brief IQ and the single-tone discrimination task for both the children with ASD (r = .48, p < .05) and the TD children (r = .45, p < .05). In the melodic memory task, however, only the scores of the ASD children correlated significantly with the scores on the Leiter-R Brief IQ (r = .40, p < .05), TD children (r =.34, p < .05).Correlations between pitch discrimination, melodic memory and developmental sensitivity to sound in children with ASDSpearman rank correlations were performed between melodic memory, paired single-tone pitch discrimination, melodic pitch discrimination, and developmental sensitivity to sound, as reported by parental account. Each child was ranked with either having or not having an auditory sensitivity to noise during their developmental history. No statistically significant relationships were found.Analysis of variance: discrimination of sharp versus flat notes in single-tone pairs by diagnosisA three-way mixed design analysis of variance was performed to determine differences in performance between the children with ASD and the TD children on their discrimination of flat versus sharp notes in the single-tone context. The between-group factor was diagnosis (children with ASD and TD children), and the within-group factors were levels (<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref3">25</reflink>, 35, and 45 cents) and direction (flat vs sharp). Main effects were found for levels (p < .01) and direction (p < .01). No main effect was found for diagnosis. A significant interaction was found between levels by direction (p < .05), indicating that both groups were better able to discriminate sharpness than flatness at every level (see Table 4). No other significant interactions were found.Table 4.Discrimination of sharp versus flat notes in single-tone pairs.Group (n = 25)25 cents35 cents45 centsSFSFSFMSDMSDMSDMSDMSDMSDASD2.681.312.121.013.360.812.761.053.680.563.440.82Typical2.361.321.921.153.320.902.241.233.400.703.001.00ASD: autism spectrum disorders; SD: standard deviation; S: sharp, F: flat.Maximum score = 4. Twenty-five participants in each group.Analysis of variance: discrimination of sharp versus flat notes in the melodic task by diagnosisAn analysis of variance identical in form to the one used for single tones was used to examine sharp and flat sensitivities in the melodic task. The between-group factor was diagnosis (children with ASD and TD children), and the within-group factors were levels (<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref4">25</reflink>, 35, and 45 cents) and direction (flat vs sharp). A main effect for diagnosis (p < .01) was found, indicating statistically significant higher scores for the children with ASD (see Table 5). A main effect was found for levels (p < .01) but not for direction, suggesting that children with ASD were more accurate than TD children at discriminating whether a note was sharp or flat at every level in the melodic context.Table 5.Discrimination of sharp versus flat notes in the melodic task.Group (n = 25)25 cents35 cents45 centsSFSFSFMSDMSDMSDMSDMSDMSDASD2.881.243.160.853.160.903.280.793.640.863.320.80Typical2.081.522.361.152.561.002.961.063.081.043.161.03ASD: autism spectrum disorders; SD: standard deviation; S: sharp, F: flat.Maximum score = 4. Twenty-five participants in each group.DiscussionIn the single-tone context, children with ASD judged whether two notes were different from one another in frequency more accurately than TD children, and at the 45-cent level, these results were statistically significant. This pitch discrimination ability was stronger for children with ASD in the melodic context where, at the 25- and 35-cent levels, elevated performance was statistically significant. In the melodic context, the task was to discriminate the same pitch deviations on the leading tone within the context of 2 two-bar melodies. The elevated scores of children with ASD on the paired single-tone context at the 45-cent level was consistent with the findings of Bonnel et al. (2003) who found that high-functioning young adults and adolescents with autism show enhanced pitch discrimination ability. The enhanced scores of children with ASD on the pitch discrimination tasks in the melodic context of the study were somewhat surprising, as this would seem to be the more difficult pitch discrimination task. The children needed to hold more information in memory in order to be able to compare the two melodies with each other, and they had to discriminate the detail of the pitch deviation of one note, the leading tone, within the whole context of a melody.How do these results fit in with the primary theories of cognitive function in autism? According to WCC theory (Happé, 1999; Shah and Frith, 1993), superior discrimination in the single-tone task was expected. Those with autism, according to this theory, have a tendency to understand their world in terms of details, with limited ability to define the details within the context of a whole. While WCC may be useful in predicting the superior performance of children with ASD in their discrimination of small differences in pitch between two single tones, it fails to explain their superior performance in discriminating pitch within the context of the melody. Therefore, enhanced pitch discrimination performance in the melodic task by the children with ASD may be best explained by the EPF approach, according to which, cognitive functioning in autism is driven by an acute detection of small changes to the environment. According to this theory, although there is a preference for processing detail in autism, this strategy does not create an imbalance between understanding detail in terms of context (Mottron et al., 2006).Children with ASD more accurately noticed when the leading tone was mistuned, indicating that they understood the gestalt of the musical phrase. The leading tone was used within the context of the melody to suggest the V-I cadence, a prominent harmonic convention in Western culture. The V-I cadence denotes a finish to the musical phrase. Their enhanced discrimination of the leading note within the musical phrase suggests that children with ASD had an expectation of how the leading tone should sound within its melodic context. They recognized the pattern within a larger structure, reinforcing the idea in EPF that elevated pattern detection mechanisms are active in autism (Mottron et al., 2009). In fact, the children with ASD were better able to discriminate pitch within the context of a melody than to discriminate the pitch of two single tones, reflecting the advantage of context when discriminating pitch. These results support the EPF approach, which contends that contextual understanding in autism remains intact. The EPF theory was also supported by the finding that the performances of children with ASD and the TD children did not differ when attempting to identify two melodies as identical. This was surprising, as this task would seem to be the easiest of the melodic discrimination trials. Thus, perhaps recognizing when the two melodies were exactly the same was more difficult for the children with ASD because there was no change or difference to be discriminated. Perception for ASD children may be heightened when small changes occur in the environment.In the melodic memory task, the children with ASD were better able than the TD children at remembering the two-measure melodies that were paired with animal pictures over a period of a week. The recall abilities of a number of children with ASD was striking, especially considering that they had heard each of the melodies only four to six times a week earlier. Of the 25 children with ASD, 8 performed at ceiling levels, including a 7-year-old boy who was the youngest participant in the study. Another 8-year-old boy who also performed with complete accuracy on this task appeared to be barely paying attention. He found it difficult to sit still, and his attention seemed to be darting from one aspect of the room to another. Yet he was able to recall the melodies instantly and automatically without effort. The superior long-term melodic memory of these two boys and of many other participants with ASD was surprising in light of the problems reported with general memory systems in autism (Volkmar et al., 2004) and the difficulty with memory where language learning is concerned. This points to the possibility that superior memory for music in nonsavant children with autism has commonalities with the musical memory of savants (Miller, 1999; Sloboda et al., 1985).Superior memory for music may be indicative of developmental differences among children with autism as compared to TD children, revealing another aspect of their cognitive style (Happé, 1999). Memory for music among children with ASD may operate similar to the type of memory used by AP possessors for whom recognition of single tones is instant and the updating of working memory is not necessary (Zatorre, 2003). This process is unlike the longer strategy used by relative pitch possessors, in which the memory of a single memorized tone is recalled from long-term memory in order to make a comparison between two pitches. Similarly, reports of superior musical memory in a musical savant with AP would suggest that superior memory for pitch in the context of melody and also harmony may draw on similar mechanisms of AP strategy (Sloboda et al., 1985). In TD populations, familiar overlearned melodies are encoded in memory as a whole (Attneave and Olsen, 1971; Davies and Jennings, 1976). Some children with ASD in this study may have encoded melody in memory systems in a manner similar to that used by TD populations to encode overlearned melodies.Generally, high-functioning persons with autism tend to perform well on measures of nonverbal fluid reasoning ability, such as the Leiter-R Brief IQ measure (Shah and Frith, 1993). In order to complete the tasks, one must enlist a highly sophisticated sense of recognizing and creating patterns. Since the cognitive processes used for these types of nonverbal reasoning tasks among persons with autism have been thought to be analogous to cognitive processes used for long-term pitch memory, and as the children with ASD in this study demonstrated cognitive strengths in the area of pitch memory, we attempted to determine whether there was a relationship between the scores of the Leiter Brief IQ measure and the musical tasks of the study. Positive correlations were found between the combined overall scores of fluid nonverbal reasoning ability as measured by Leiter-R performance and the combined overall scores for pitch discrimination in the single-tone task and in melodic memory both among TD children and children with ASD. After separating the scores of the two groups, the nonverbal reasoning ability scores remained positively correlated with accuracy in the single-tone task for both groups. However, nonverbal reasoning was positively correlated only with melodic memory ability in children with ASD. A similar relationship had previously been discovered. Rauscher and colleagues (Rauscher et al., 1994; Rauscher and Zupanee, 2000) found that both music listening and music education improved performance on measures of nonverbal reasoning in both college students and kindergarten students. Thus, the evidence from this study and others suggests that processing musical information and visual patterning ability may either be related to each other or are affected by each other.We compared children’s discrimination of flat versus sharp notes in both the single-tone context and in the melodic context. In the single-tone context, both groups discriminated sharp notes more accurately than flat notes. However, in the melodic context, no differences were found in accuracy when identifying sharp notes as opposed to flat notes. Both groups of children were able to identify sharp or flat notes with equal accuracy, although the children with ASD were more accurate than the TD children at this task in the context of melody. One possible explanation is that when pitches are put into the context of a melody, the discrimination of both sharp and flat notes may be easier than when they are not part of a melody (Dowling, 1978; Dowling and Fujitani, 1970). The relationship of the notes to one another within a melody creates the tonal center or key. Both groups of children may have found the single tones more difficult to discriminate because they were presented out of a tonal context.Memory for pitch by the children with ASD was enhanced, regardless of whether the pitch to be discriminated was in or out of context. These results supported EPF approach. Nevertheless, an important question remains: why is memory for musical information preserved in autism, whereas memory for language is often severely impaired (Rutter et al., 2005)? One possible answer to this question is that developmental differences in autism could dictate a stronger memory for pitched sounds as compared to speech sounds, if the enhanced pitch memory of nonsavant children with autism is related to the AP ability of musical savants. Saffran and Griepentrog (2001) demonstrated that TD infants preferred AP cues to relative ones. This preference disappeared, however, with increased age. Saffran and Griepentrog concluded that AP ability might be part of a developmental disinhibitory process (Bossomaier and Snyder, 2004) in which relative pitch becomes favored as language acquisition takes place. If children with autism retain a level of AP ability, their preference and memory for the pitched (vowel) sounds of words may interfere with their memory of speech (consonant) sounds. This idea is supported by evidence that many children with autism have an aversion to spectrally complex sounds like noise (Samson et al., 2006). Speech contains spectrally complex sounds in the formation of consonants. Studies in backward masking suggest that the noise created by consonants may interfere with language comprehension (Marler et al., 2002). Children with autism may have better memories for pitches of vowels than for consonant sounds, and this may affect their comprehension of language (Heaton et al., 2008a; Järvenen-Pasley and Heaton, 2007).Although developmental differences in memory for pitch may affect language acquisition in autism, this ability could be adaptive in some musical contexts. Pitch memory, along with nonverbal reasoning ability, may eventually be regarded as a general strength among persons with autism. Understanding developmental strengths in autism will be the first step in designing effective educational systems for these children.We propose five areas for further research following from the findings of this study: (a) to further delineate to what degree the development of pitch memory in autism differs from that of both TD populations and populations with other developmental disabilities, (b) to determine to what extent visual patterning ability in autism is related to or coexists with enhanced pitch memory, (c) to define whether enhanced pitch memory is evident across all forms of autism and to what degree this strength contributes to the idea of cognitive style, (d) to answer the question of whether enhanced pitch memory affects language acquisition in autism, and (e) to determine how music could be used as a tool to educate children with autism. 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Nature Neuroscience6: 692–695.</p> <aug> <p>By Sandy Stanutz; Joel Wapnick and Jacob A Burack</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib6" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib3" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib1" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib2" firstref="ref8"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib4" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib8" firstref="ref22"></nolink>
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  Data: Pitch Discrimination and Melodic Memory in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Stanutz%2C+Sandy%22">Stanutz, Sandy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Wapnick%2C+Joel%22">Wapnick, Joel</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Burack%2C+Jacob+A%2E%22">Burack, Jacob A.</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Autism%3A+The+International+Journal+of+Research+and+Practice%22"><i>Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice</i></searchLink>. Feb 2014 18(2):137-147.
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  Data: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
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  Data: 11
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  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Autism%22">Autism</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Children%22">Children</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Pervasive+Developmental+Disorders%22">Pervasive Developmental Disorders</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Early+Adolescents%22">Early Adolescents</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Comparative+Analysis%22">Comparative Analysis</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Auditory+Discrimination%22">Auditory Discrimination</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Auditory+Perception%22">Auditory Perception</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Music%22">Music</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Short+Term+Memory%22">Short Term Memory</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Long+Term+Memory%22">Long Term Memory</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cognitive+Ability%22">Cognitive Ability</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Language+Acquisition%22">Language Acquisition</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cognitive+Processes%22">Cognitive Processes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Gifted%22">Gifted</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Audiology%22">Audiology</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Clinical+Diagnosis%22">Clinical Diagnosis</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Asperger+Syndrome%22">Asperger Syndrome</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SU" term="%22Leiter+International+Performance+Scale%22">Leiter International Performance Scale</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="SU" term="%22Autism+Diagnostic+Observation+Schedule%22">Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule</searchLink>
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  Data: 10.1177/1362361312462905
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  Data: 1362-3613
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
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  Data: Background: Pitch perception is enhanced among persons with autism. We extended this finding to memory for pitch and melody among school-aged children. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate pitch memory in musically untrained children with autism spectrum disorders, aged 7-13 years, and to compare it to that of age- and IQ-matched typically developing children. Methods: The children were required to discriminate isolated tones in two differing contexts as well to remember melodies after a period of 1 week. The tasks were designed to employ both short- and long-term memory for music. For the pitch discrimination task, the children first had to indicate whether two isolated tones were the same or different when the second was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Second, the children discriminated the tones within the context of melody. They were asked whether two melodies were the same or different when the leading tone of the second melody was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Long-term memory for melody was also investigated, as the children attempted to recall four different two-bar melodies after 1 week. Results: The children with autism spectrum disorders demonstrated elevated pitch discrimination ability in the single-tone and melodic context as well as superior long-term memory for melody. Pitch memory correlated positively with scores on measures of nonverbal fluid reasoning ability. Conclusion: Superior short- and long-term pitch memory was found among children with autism spectrum disorders. The results indicate an aspect to cognitive functioning that may predict both enhanced nonverbal reasoning ability and atypical language development.
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  Data: 2014
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  Data: EJ1019002
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        Value: 10.1177/1362361312462905
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        PageCount: 11
        StartPage: 137
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Autism
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Children
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Pervasive Developmental Disorders
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Early Adolescents
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      – SubjectFull: Comparative Analysis
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Auditory Discrimination
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Auditory Perception
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Music
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Short Term Memory
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Long Term Memory
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cognitive Ability
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Language Acquisition
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cognitive Processes
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Gifted
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Audiology
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Clinical Diagnosis
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Asperger Syndrome
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Foreign Countries
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Canada
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Leiter International Performance Scale
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Pitch Discrimination and Melodic Memory in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Stanutz, Sandy
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Wapnick, Joel
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Burack, Jacob A.
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 02
              Type: published
              Y: 2014
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 1362-3613
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 18
            – Type: issue
              Value: 2
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice
              Type: main
ResultId 1