Pitch Perfect

Pitch discrimination and melodic memory in children with autism spectrum disorders 
by Sandy Stanutz, Joel Wapnick and Jacob A Burack

Findings:

• Memory for pitch by the children with ASD was enhanced, regardless of whether the pitch to be discriminated was in or out of context. These results supported EPF approach. 
• why is memory for musical information preserved in autism, whereas memory for language is often severely impaired (Rutter et al., 2005)? One possible answer to this question is that developmental differences in autism could dictate a stronger memory for pitched sounds as compared to speech sounds, if the enhanced pitch memory of non savant children with autism is related to the AP ability of musical savants.

Key points: ASD Short term and long term memory, savant skills ( can we identify through their cognitive learning style?)