Musical Memory in Autism and Williams Syndrome

Post by Anastasia Sares

What's the science?

Music has been called a “human universal,” as its presence has been found in almost every known culture. While musical instruments have an important place, the human voice is one of the most primal music-makers. In fact, people tend to remember melodies better when they are sung than when they are played on instruments: this is sometimes called the voice advantage. The voice advantage has been observed in neurotypical populations, but until now it was uncertain whether it extended to people with Autism or Williams syndrome. One of the primary diagnostic criteria for Autism is problems with communication, while people with Williams syndrome are often hyper-communicative. This week in Autism Research, Weiss and colleagues showed that, despite these differences in response to social cues in general, people with Autism and Williams syndrome still have a voice advantage for remembering melodies, just like neurotypicals.

How did they do it?

The authors performed a simple memory test in three groups of people: one typically developing group, one group with Autism, and another group with Williams syndrome. The groups were matched for mental age, so that their memory for the melodies could be compared. Each group was exposed to a variety of melodies, some played on the piano, some played on marimba, and some performed vocally. They were asked to rate how much they liked each melody. After the initial exposure task, they were exposed to more melodies, some repeated and some new, and asked if they remembered them.

What did they find?

The authors compared the “hit rate” (the number of old melodies correctly identified as old) with the “false alarm rate” (the number of new melodies incorrectly identified as old). This technique is part of signal detection theory, which accounts for some people’s tendency to say they remembered something even when they didn’t. As long as the hit rate was greater than the false alarm rate, the researchers would assume that the participants were not answering randomly and that their participants did have some memory of the melodies. All the groups had more hits than false alarms.

However, the difference between hits and false alarms was greater for vocal melodies, an indication of the voice advantage. This was present in all of the groups, not just the typically developing group.

What's the impact?

When researching conditions like Autism and Williams syndrome, it’s important to acknowledge what skills are intact, instead of just looking for differences. This research shows that the voice advantage generalizes to non-neurotypical populations. It also suggests that it might be possible to use vocal music therapeutically in these groups, especially in Autism to help with verbal communication.

Weiss et al. Enhanced Memory for Vocal Melodies in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Williams Syndrome. Autism Research (2021). Access the original scientific publication here.