More Is Less: Pitch Discrimination and Language Delays in Children with Optimal Outcomes from Autism

Abstract

Lay Abstract Parents, clinicians, teachers, and researchers seem to agree that individuals with autism spectrum disorders often have sharper hearing, including abilities like perfect pitch, better memory for specific sounds, better abilities to tell one sound apart from even a very similar sound, and so on. We asked whether this sharper hearing ability is related to some of the difficulties in autism, including later development of language: Is better hearing part of having ASD? One important part of this study is that it includes a group of people from all over the U.S. and Canada who had ASD when they were younger (diagnosed before age five years), but who do not have any symptoms now that they are teenagers. We call this an “optimal outcome”. They do not have any symptoms, they do not need any special education services, and their IQ scores are in the normal or high-normal range. We measured the ability to hear the difference between two tones, or pitches, in 26 teenagers with optimal outcomes, 29 teenagers with high-functioning autism, and 20 teenagers with typical development. The teenagers who have ASD were better at hearing pitch differences, suggesting that this special ability is part of ASD; the teenagers with optimal outcomes did not differ from the typically-developing group. Also, the teenagers with the best pitch abilities tended to be the latest to start talking when they were toddlers. The paper discusses what these results mean for communication in ASD, and for the process of learning language more generally. Scientific Abstract The autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders, diagnosed behaviorally but associated with differences in brain development. Individuals with ASD exhibit superior auditory perceptual skills, which may correlate with ASD symptomatology, particularly language skills. We describe findings from individuals diagnosed with ASD before age five, who now have no symptoms (e.g., having optimal outcomes). Unlike an ASD group, which shows heightened pitch discrimination, the Optimal Outcome group’s abilities do not differ from those of typically developing controls. Furthermore, pitch discrimination is associated with both current autism symptomatology and early language milestones. Findings illuminate processes associated with resolution of autism. We also discuss a specific mechanism by which heightened auditory discrimination leads to language delays in ASD.

Detail and Gestalt Focus in Individuals with Optimal Outcomes from Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Their typical processing style may have been present throughout development, including the period when they had active symptoms of ASD; indeed, this is consistent with the possibility that this kind of processing style may have been instrumental in, or at least consistent with the possibility of their improvement. A second possibility, and one that seems more consistent with other data showing a high degree of similarity between HFA and OO groups early in development (Eigsti & Fein, 2013; Mraz, Dixon, Dumont-Mathieu & Fein, 2009), is that participants with OO had a global/local focus similar to the HFA group early in development, but that this focus has changed over time, potentially in tandem with the loss of other symptoms. This would suggest that the OO group has “overcome” local focus, much as they “overcame” ASD symptoms.…”

“…Additionally, the current data suggested that individuals with OO do not display the WCC processing style, suggesting that phenotypic characteristics of ASD may remit along with diagnostic symptoms (see also Eigsti & Fein, 2013). Future research should examine these processes longitudinally, to provide a clearer picture of the interaction between ASD symptoms and other phenotypic characteristics as they change with time and intervention.…”

Early Gesture and Vocabulary Development in Infant Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Thus, for example, Norbury and colleagues (2010) found that when tested immediately following word learning trials, children with ASD not only successfully learned novel words but recalled a significantly greater percentage of correct phonemes than did a TD comparison group, a result consistent with evidence of enhanced perceptual processing of speech in ASD (Jarvinen-Pasley et al, 2008; see also Eigsti & Fein, 2013). Strikingly, however, when the researchers assessed memory for the same novel words four weeks later, the children with ASD produced significantly fewer correct phonemes and remembered significantly fewer semantic features of the words than TD comparison children.…”

Auditory Processing Enhancements in the TS2-Neo Mouse Model of Timothy Syndrome, a Rare Genetic Disorder Associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Interestingly, this type of superiority in auditory processing is not seen in other mutant rodent models, for example knock-outs using candidate susceptibility dyslexia risk genes (Rendall et al, 2015; Truong et al, 2014; Szalkowksi et al, 2013; Szalkowksi et al, 2012). Thus although low-level superiority in auditory processing may be related to language deficits seen in ASD (Eigsti & Fein, 2013), these same superiorities do not seem to occur in other language-specific developmental disorders (e.g., dyslexia and specific language impairment). As such, low-level auditory enhancements form a particularly interesting aspect of the ASD-like animal model profile.…”

“…Superior performance in ASD individuals has been shown in low-level visual perceptual tasks such as visual search (O'Riordan, Plaisted, Driver, & Baron-Cohen, 2001; Plaisted, O'Riordan, & BaronCohen, 1998) and discrimination tasks (Plaisted et al, 1998). Also seen are specific enhancements in pitch discrimination among those with ASD (Bonnel et al 2010, 2003; Eigsti & Fein, 2013; Heaton and Heaton 2003, 2005; Jones et al 2009; O'Riordan & Plaisted 2001). A more recent study also found superior auditory performance on detecting perceptual features of pitch and timing in individuals with autistic traits (Stewart, Griffiths, Grube, 2015).…”