Chen, Y.; Tang, E.; Ding, H.; Zhang, Y. Auditory Pitch Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 2022, 65, 4866–4886, doi:10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00254.
Chen, Y.; Tang, E.; Ding, H.; Zhang, Y. Auditory Pitch Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 2022, 65, 4866–4886, doi:10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00254.
Chen, Y.; Tang, E.; Ding, H.; Zhang, Y. Auditory Pitch Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 2022, 65, 4866–4886, doi:10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00254.
Chen, Y.; Tang, E.; Ding, H.; Zhang, Y. Auditory Pitch Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 2022, 65, 4866–4886, doi:10.1044/2022_jslhr-22-00254.
Abstract
Purpose: Pitch plays an important role in auditory perception of music and language. This study provides a systematic review with meta-analysis to investigate whether individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have enhanced pitch processing ability and identify the potential factors associated with processing differences between ASD and neurotypicals.Method: We conducted a systematic search through six major electronic databases focusing on the studies that used nonspeech stimuli to provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment across existing studies on pitch perception in autism. We identified potential participant- and methodology-related moderators and conducted meta-regression analyses using mixed-effects models.Results: On the basis of 22 studies with a total of 464 participants with ASD, we obtained a small-to-medium positive effect size (0.26) in support of enhanced pitch perception in ASD.Moreover, the mean age and non-verbal IQ of participants were found to significantly moderate the between-studies heterogeneity.Conclusion: Our study provides the first meta-analysis on auditory pitch perception in ASD and demonstrates the existence of different developmental trajectories between individuals with ASD and neurotypicals. Non-verbal ability can be a significant contributor to the lower-level/ local processing bias in ASD. We highlight the need for further investigation of pitch perception in ASD under challenging listening conditions. Future neurophysiological and brain imaging research studies with a longitudinal design are also needed to better understand the nature of the atypical processing in ASD to obtain new insights into the underlying neural mechanisms and to help guide auditory-based interventions for improving language and social functioning.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
