Autism-related language, personality, and cognition in people with absolute pitch: results of a preliminary study.
Perfect pitch and autism-like traits often co-occur, so watch for social-cognitive needs in musical clients.
01Research in Context
What this study did
LeBlanc et al. (2003) compared the adult musicians who have perfect pitch with 12 musicians who do not.
Each person filled out the Autism Spectrum Quotient, took language tests, and did memory tasks.
The goal was to see if perfect pitch links to autism-like traits in people without an autism diagnosis.
What they found
The perfect-pitch group scored higher on social oddness, rigid thinking, and attention to detail.
They also showed a cognitive style that looks like mild autism, even though no one had that diagnosis.
In short, perfect pitch and autism traits travel together in musicians.
How this fits with other research
Heaton (2005) extends this idea. She tested autistic kids and found they spot tiny pitch shifts better than peers.
Together the two studies show the same pitch skill can appear in both autistic children and non-autistic adults with perfect pitch.
Fusaroli et al. (2017) add a warning. Their meta-analysis says voice pitch alone is too weak to screen for autism, so you should not use pitch as a stand-alone test.
Sasson et al. (2018) echo A et al. by showing that neurotypical kids with more autism-like traits also show special memory strengths, proving these traits sit on a spectrum in everyone.
Why it matters
If a client has perfect pitch, expect possible social rigidity or detail focus. Use clear, literal language and structured lessons. Pair musical tasks with social scripts to build flexibility. Do not assume autism, but do monitor for support needs that look similar.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Reports of a relatively high prevalence of absolute pitch (AP) in autistic disorder suggest that AP is associated with some of the distinctive cognitive and social characteristics seen in autism spectrum disorders. Accordingly we examined cognition, personality, social behavior, and language in 13 musicians with strictly defined AP (APS) and 33 musician controls (MC) without AP using standardized interviews and tests previously applied to identify the broad autism phenotype seen in the relatives of autistic probands. These included the Pragmatic Rating Scale (PRS) (social aspects of language) the Personality Assessment Schedule (PAS) (rigidity, aloofness, anxiety/worry, hypersensitivity), and WAIS performance subtests (PIQ). On the basis of their behavior in the interviews, subjects were classified as socially eccentric, somewhat eccentric, or not eccentric. Forty-six percent of the APS, but only 15% of the MC, were classified as socially eccentric (p < .03). APS but not MC showed higher scores on block design than on the other PIQ tests (p < .06), a PIQ pattern seen in autism spectrum disorders. Although APS and MC did not differ significantly on other measures it is of note that APS mean scores on the PRS and PAS (5.69, 4.92) were almost twice as high as those for the MC (3.03, 2.45). Thus, musicians with AP show some of the personality, language, and cognitive features associated with autism. Piecemeal information processing, of which AP is an extreme and rare example, is characteristic of autism and may be associated as well with subclinical variants in language and behavior. We speculate that the gene or genes that underlie AP may be among the genes that contribute to autism.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2003 · doi:10.1023/a:1022987309913