What if sharing music as a language is the key to meeting halfway? Absolute pitch, pitch discrimination and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This research review looked at how autistic children relate to music. It found that children with autism are much more likely to have 'perfect pitch' (the ability to identify musical notes without reference) and are generally better at hearing differences in musical tones. About 5-11% of autistic children have perfect pitch, which is much higher than in other children. The researchers suggest these musical strengths could be used to help improve social and communication skills.

This systematic review examined the relationship between autism and enhanced musical abilities, specifically absolute pitch and pitch discrimination. The review included 17 studies: 8 case-control studies on pitch discrimination and 9 studies on absolute pitch (4 case reports and 5 case-control studies). Results suggest autistic children show heightened attention to music and have an increased frequency of absolute pitch compared to typical populations. The prevalence of absolute pitch in autism ranges from 5-11%, significantly higher than the general population.

The authors propose that these enhanced musical abilities could potentially be leveraged therapeutically to improve joint attention and social-communication skills in autistic children.

Enhanced musical abilities in autism could be leveraged therapeutically to improve joint attention and social-communication skills. Early detection of absolute pitch may identify children who could benefit from music-based interventions. Music therapy approaches should consider these enhanced abilities when designing treatment protocols.

Limited number of included studies (17 total). Mix of case reports and case-control studies with varying methodological quality. No meta-analysis performed. Sample sizes not reported. Unclear screening criteria and potential publication bias not addressed.

Absolute pitch is the ability to identify a given note in the absence of a reference note. The prevalence of absolute pitch in autism is between 5% and 11% and autism involves notably enhanced abilities in pitch discrimination. To summarize the evidence about the role and the meaning of these special skills in autism. Systematic electronic database searches were conducted using Pubmed, Scopus, Psycinfo, and Web of Science.

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRI-SMA) guideline was followed, and, after thorough screening by two independent reviewers, 17 articles remained eligible for inclusion in this study. We have two different groups of results. Eight case-control studies discuss pitch discrimination and autism. The second group included four case reports about autistic individuals with absolute pitch and five case-control studies.

These results strongly suggest that music elicits special attention for children with autism, and taken together, this evidence supports a major frequency of AP in autistic children. Based on this evidence, future perspectives could include studies aiming to detect absolute pitch at an early age and to use this special skill to stimulate joint attention, as well as socio-communicative skills.