University of Reading, UK.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Autism. 2023 Apr;27(3):629-646. doi: 10.1177/13623613221111207. Epub 2022 Jul 18.
As a key auditory attribute of sounds, pitch is ubiquitous in our everyday listening experience involving language, music and environmental sounds. Given its critical role in auditory processing related to communication, numerous studies have investigated pitch processing in autism spectrum disorder. However, the findings have been mixed, reporting either enhanced, typical or impaired performance among autistic individuals. By investigating top-down comparisons of internal mental representations of pitch contours in speech and music, this study shows for the first time that, while autistic individuals exhibit diverse profiles of pitch processing compared to non-autistic individuals, their mental representations of pitch contours are typical across domains. These findings suggest that pitch-processing mechanisms are shared across domains in autism spectrum disorder and provide theoretical implications for using music to improve speech for those autistic individuals who have language problems.
音高作为声音的一个关键听觉属性，在我们日常的语言、音乐和环境声音体验中无处不在。鉴于其在与交流相关的听觉处理中至关重要的作用，许多研究都调查了自闭症谱系障碍中的音高处理。然而，这些发现结果不一，报告称自闭症个体的表现要么增强，要么正常，要么受损。通过研究言语和音乐中音高轮廓的内部心理表征的自上而下比较，本研究首次表明，虽然自闭症个体的音高处理模式与非自闭症个体相比表现出多样化的特征，但他们在言语和音乐领域的音高轮廓的心理表征是典型的。这些发现表明，在自闭症谱系障碍中，音高处理机制在不同领域是共有的，并为使用音乐改善那些有语言问题的自闭症个体的言语提供了理论意义。
