The Effects of Autism and Alexithymia on Physiological and Verbal Responsiveness to Music

Allen, Rory; Davis, Robert and Hill, Elisabeth L.. 2012. The Effects of Autism and Alexithymia on Physiological and Verbal Responsiveness to Music. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders(43), pp. 432-444. ISSN 0162-3257 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

It has been suggested that individuals with autism will be less responsive to the emotional content of music than typical individuals. With the aim of testing this hypothesis, a group of high-functioning adults on the autism spectrum was compared with a group of matched controls on two measures of emotional responsiveness to music, comprising physiological and verbal measures. Impairment in participants ability to verbalize their emotions (type-II alexithymia) was also assessed. The groups did not differ significantly on physiological responsiveness, but the autism group was significantly lower on the verbal measure. However, inclusion of the alexithymia score as a mediator variable nullified this group difference, suggesting that the difference was due not to absence of underlying emotional responsiveness to music in autism, but to a reduced ability to articulate it.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1587-8

Keywords:

autism; music; alexithymia; emotion

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Psychology

Dates:

DateEvent
1 July 2012Published Online
1 April 2012Accepted

Item ID:

7177

Date Deposited:

27 Sep 2012 12:08

Last Modified:

30 Jun 2017 15:46

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/7177

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