Assessing Theories of Central Coherence and Perceptual Functioning with Music in ASD

Background: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit spared or enhanced perception and discrimination of local musical elements such as pitch (Bonnel et al., 2003; Heaton, et al., 1998).  Although Foxton and colleagues (2003) reported that individuals with ASD can perceive musical contour, few studies have assessed global processing of music in ASD.

Objectives: To test central coherence (Happé & Frith, 2006) and enhanced perceptual functioning (Mottron et al., 2006) theories in ASD using musical stimuli. Although both theories recognize intact or enhanced local processing in ASD, the former theory stipulates that this will impede global processing whereas the latter suggest that global processing will be spared or enhanced.

Methods: Teenagers with ASD (N=22; age: Mean±SD= 13.2±2.1 years, FSIQ: Mean±SD= 97±17) and typically developing (TD) teenagers (N=22, age: Mean±SD= 12.1±2.3 years, FSIQ: Mean±SD= 108±12) with comparable verbal and performance IQ and musical knowledge and ability participated in the study. Participants were asked to solve a musical puzzle made of 5 plastic cubes, each playing a segment of a melody. In the first condition (creation), participants were asked to arrange the 5 blocks in the order they though sounded best. In the second condition (replication), participants listened to a musical excerpt twice and were asked to place the blocks in the order which would replicate the excerpt. The musical excerpts to be reconstructed were the same for both conditions and 5 excerpts, lasting 10-30 seconds, were presented in each condition.

Results: For both conditions (creation and replication), performance of participants with ASD was compared to performance of typically developing participants. There was no significant difference between groups (all p<.05) for time needed to solve the musical puzzles, number of pieces of the puzzle that were placed in the correct location, and number of pieces of the puzzle that were placed in the correct sequence independently of location.

Conclusions: Although more evidence is needed to assess musical processing in children and teenagers with ASD, global processing in ASD does not seem to differ from typically developing children and teenagers. These results support the description of global processing suggested by the enhanced perceptual functioning theory.