Autism and pitch processing splinter skills: a group and subgroup analysis.

Autism is characterized by an uneven profile of cognitive abilities and population studies show that approximately 10 percent of diagnosed individuals possess a skill that is significantly better than would be predicted by global IQ. Recent evidence suggests that individuals with autism who possess special skills may represent a distinct genetic group within the autism spectrum. Intellectually high- and low-functioning children and adolescents with autism, together with age- and intelligence-matched comparison participants, completed two experiments that tested pitch discrimination and pitch memory within a visuo-spatial format. The analysis of the data from the studies showed that a subgroup of individuals with autism achieved performance scores that were between four and five standard deviations above the mean for the groups. Unlike comparison participants, their performance appeared to be independent of intelligence, musical training and experience. The findings were interpreted within the context of neuroconstructivist models of typical development and delayed language acquisition characteristic of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Beyond perception: musical representation and on-line processing in autism.

Whilst findings from experimental studies suggest that perceptual mechanisms underpinning musical cognition are preserved or enhanced in autism, little is known about how higher-level, structural aspects of music are processed. Twenty participants with autism, together with age and intelligence matched controls, completed a musical priming task in which global and local musical contexts were manipulated. The results from the study revealed no between-group differences and showed that both global and local musical contexts influenced participants' congruity judgements. The findings were interpreted within the context of studies showing weakened sensitivity to verbal/semantic information in autism.