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A new study by Canadian researchers found that music training dramatically improves social communication among children with autism. The improvements were significant after just 12 weekly sessions, suggesting that music can have a lasting and profound effect on the quality of life of autistic children and their families.
For decades, scientists have known that there is some connection between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and music. They find that a disproportionate number of people with this disorder have a "perfect tone" – the ability to identify the tone of a tone instantly and effortlessly. without using a reference tone. A person who has this rare gift can, for example, hear a single note and say whether it is a flat or a flat or other.
The absolute tone seems to work in families, suggesting a genetic link. Some researchers also believe that studying this musical ability can also reveal valuable clues about some of the genes involved in autism and, more broadly, about the development and functioning of the human brain.
However, it's not just about getting the perfect tone – people with ASD seem to have a much finer hearing experience in general. They might hear the buzz of electricity in the walls or find noisy environments simply unbearable, which had already been confirmed by British researchers.
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In a new study, scientists from the University of Montreal and McGill University wanted a clearer picture of the impact music lessons could have on people with ASD. They enrolled 51 children with ASD between the ages of 6 and 12, some of whom received a musical intervention for three months.
Each child's parents first completed standard questionnaires to badess their social communication skills, quality of family life, and severity of ASD symptoms. MRIs were performed for each child to establish a basis of brain activity.
The children were randomly badigned to one of two groups: one received a therapy by music, the other did not. Both groups worked with a therapist whose main task was to foster reciprocal interactions. However, the music therapy group also sang and played different musical instruments for 45 minutes each week.
At the end of the music therapy sessions, the parents of the children in this group reported a significant improvement in the communication skills and quality of life of the family compared to those in the control group. Parents of children from both groups have not reported any reduction in the severity of autism.
"It is important to note that our study, as well as a recent large-scale clinical trial on the musical intervention, have not revealed any changes with respect to the symptoms of the disease." autism, "said Megha Sharda, a postdoctoral fellow at the Université de Montréal and lead author of the new research. , Posted in Translational psychiatry. "It may be because we do not have a sufficiently sensitive tool to directly measure changes in social interaction behaviors."
Brain badyzes suggest that improved communication skills in children who have undergone music therapy could be the result of increased connectivity between the auditory and motor regions of the brain, and decreased connectivity between auditory and visual areas (which are usually over-connected in ASD individuals).
According to Canadian researchers, when connectivity between these regions is suboptimal, it becomes difficult to engage in social interaction. Engaging in a conversation involves a series of processes: paying attention to what the other person is saying, recognizing clues that suggest your turn is occurring, and ignoring irrelevant noises. All of these tasks are easy for most people, but can be difficult for people with ASD.
The results show that musical intervention can make a big difference when it comes to improving social skills in children with ASD. Many teachers and parents may find it useful for school-aged children to practice some form of music. In addition, the neurological link between music training and social communication adds to a body of evidence suggesting that ASD also has a significant influence on sensory processing in the brain.
"The universal appeal of music makes it applicable on a global scale and can be implemented with relatively few large-scale resources in many contexts such as home and school," he says. said Aparna Nadig, Associate Professor at McGill's SCSD and lead author of the study. with Krista Hyde, Associate Professor of Psychology at UdeM.
The results appeared in the newspaper Translational psychiatry.
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