Anembodiedapproachtotestingmusicalempathyinsubjectswithan

autismspectrumdisorder

LeenDeBruyn1,DirkMoelants1,MarcLeman1

1GhentUniversity,DepartmentofMusicology(IPEM)

Abstract

Wepresentanempiricalandqualitativestudytestingmusicalempathicability insubjectswith

anautismspectrumdisorder(ASD).Fourexperimentsrequiringanincreasinglevelofempathy

withmusic, from synchronization and attuning to emotional empathy,were carried out, using

kinematicdevicesformeasuringembodiedlisteningresponsesandaverbalemotionattribution

task. Results suggest that people with ASD have a corporeal understanding of the affective

featuresofmusic,sincetheyareabletomirrorstructuralandevenaffectivefeaturesofthemusic

into corporeal articulations. However, this corporeal understanding does not give them a

straightforwardaccesstotheemotionalcontentofthemusic.ThesubjectswithASDseemedto

relyondisembodiedcognitiveprocessestoattributeaffectstomusic.

Keywords

autism,music,musicalempathy,embodiment,affectattribution

Oneof themainsymptomsofautismspectrumdisorders isadisturbanceofsocialskills,more

particularlyadisturbanceof theability toshare the feelingsandemotionswithotherpersons.

While this lack of empathy in autism subjects is evident in social contexts, it is less evident

whetheritalsooccursinartisticcontexts.Thispaperaimsattestingtowhatextentsubjectswith

autismcandevelopanempathicrelationshipwithmusicthroughlistening.Thefocusonmusicis

of particular interest because music is known to be very rich in emotional content. Many

(typically developing) people use music for consolation and they often engage in a kind of

emotionalrelationshipwiththemusic(1,2,3).Agoodexampleofthisengagementiswhenpeople

listentosadmusic.Initspropercontext,listeningtosadmusicmayconsoleasubjectbecauseit

allows the subject to find relief in the imitation of themusical emotion, as if themusic is just

another social agent with whom it is possible to share emotions (4). The question is to what

degreesubjectswithautismmayfindasimilarreliefinmusic,orinmoregeneralterms,towhat

degreetheydifferinmusicalempathyfromacontrolgroupoftypicallydevelopingsubjects.

AnumberofstudieshavebeenaddressingtheroleofmusicforpeoplewithASD,therebymainly

focusing on theperception ofmusical structure. Several studies showed thatASD‐subjects are

superior to typically developing subjects when it comes to detailed processing of musical

structures (5). Research of Heaton et al. (6,7,8), for example, showed that children with ASD

outperform their matched controls on pitch discrimination, pitch categorization and pitch

memory tasks.The resultsofBonnel et al. (9) showed that subjectswithASDwere superior to

typicallydevelopingindividualsinthepitchdiscriminationandcategorizationtasks.

Research on ASD and affect perception inmusic aremuchmore rare.Musical affect has been

addressedinastudybyHeatonetal.(10).Inthisstudy,fourteenchildrenwithASDandAsperger

syndromewere tested for theirability to identify theaffectiveconnotationsofmelodies in the

majorandminormusicalmode.Theywererequiredtomatchmusicalexcerptswithschematic

representations of happy and sad faces. The results showed that there were no differences

betweentheclinicalgroupandcontrolsintheirabilitytoascribethemusicalexamplestothetwo

affectivecategories.Theauthorsconcludedthat incontrasttotheirperformanceswithinsocial

andinterpersonalrelations,childrenwithASDshowednodeficitsinprocessingaffectinmusical

stimuli.However, the fact that childrenwithASDcould recognizeemotional expressionat this

simple levelmightnotbesosurprising,given the fact thatemotionrecognition inpeoplewith

ASDisnotalwaysimpairedonalllevelsofcomplexity.Indeed,Cappsetal.(11)andBaron‐Cohen

etal.(12)foundthatchildrenwithASDwereabletounderstandsimpleemotions.Inthestudyof

Capps et al. (11) it was also found that subjects with ASD could understand more complex

emotions,althoughheretheyneededsignificantlymorepromptingandtimethantheirmatched

controls.

In thepresent study, the relationshipbetweenpeoplewithASDandmusic is studied from the

viewpoint of embodied listening and embodied musical empathy. Empathy is traditionally

describedastheabilitytoshareanotherperson’sfeelingsoremotionsasiftheywereyourown.

Empathywithmusicwouldmean thathumanshave theability to identify themselveswith the

emotionalexpressivenessembeddedinthemusic.Leman(4)definesseveralstagesinthisprocess

of empathy with music, namely synchronization, corporeal attuning, corporeal imitation and

emotionalempathy.Allthesegradationsarebasedontheideathatthelistenercangetaccessto

the emotional system of themusic through several gradations of corporeal involvement. This

embodiedviewonmusicalempathyisinagreementwithotherfindingsinemotionresearch(13,14,

15) suggesting that themotor systemmay access the emotional system in different degrees of

engagement.Synchronization is oftendisplayed in tapping along thebeatwhile listening (16,17).

Research has shown that subjects, even without being aware, tend to move body parts in

synchrony with patterns in the physical stimulus (18,19,20,21). Synchronizing the body with

structuralfeatures(basicpulse,beat,orrhythm)inmusiccanbeinterpretedasanon‐inhibited

motorre‐synthesisoftheperceivedsonicpatternsinthemusic.Itallowsthelistenertofeeland

corporeally understand a basis structuring element in themusic. In otherwords, it offers the

listener the possibility to ‘get into the music’. Corporeal attuning or harmonizing with music

impliesanactivemotoractivity, involvingcontrol,short‐termpredictionandanengagementin

goal‐directed or intentional processes. In corporeal attuning with music the subject’s body is

alignedwiththemusic’ssonicforms.Thisalignmentoffersanopportunityformirroring,thatis,

for experiencing theworld from the viewpoint of themusic’s sonic forms (melody, harmony).

Corporeal attuning thus provides a perfect context for empathy. Yet it should be noted that

attuning is mainly involving the motor system, and not necessarily the emotional system. In

emotionalempathy,thesubjectentersastageofbeingfullytakenbythemusic,includingboththe

motor and the emotional system. Music listening normally implies a straigthforward process

from synchronization with the music to emotional understanding of the music, without

experiencing a gapbetweenmotor and emotional system.Hence splittingup this process into

discretestepsisartificial.However,inthepresentstudyweaimatinvestigatingwhetherpeople

withASDcansuccesfullyexecutethedifferentstepsofthisprocess,thusisolatingeachstepinthe

empathicprocess,andwhethertheycanestablishadirectlinkbetweenembodiment,cognition

andempathywithmusic.

Intheresearchpresentedhere,therelationshipbetweensubjectswithASDandmusicisstudied

at three levels of empathic involvement, namely, synchronization, corporeal attuning and

emotional empathy. Both synchronization and attuning are studied from the viewpoint of

embodied listening, using kinematic devices for measurement. In contrast, the study on

emotional empathy is a classic study involving verbal reporting. In the first and second

experiment, subjectswereasked to tapanddrawalongwith thebeatof themusic.These two

experimentstestedtheirabilityofsynchronization.Inathirdexperiment,subjectswereaskedto

drawalongwiththemelodiccontourofthemusic,usinganelectronicpenandtabletequipment,

testing their ability of corporeal attuning. In the fourth experiment subjects had to describe

musical excerpts using affect‐related adjectives. This task requires insight in the emotional

content embedded in the music and thus investigates the ability of emotional empathy. Each

subjectinthisstudycompletedthefourexperimentswithinatimespanoftwoweeks.

Experiments

1.Synchronization

Twoexperimentsaimat investigatingtheabilityofpeoplewithASDtosynchronize theirbody

movementstothemusicalbeat.Thefirstexperimentisastudyontappingthebeat,thesecond

on drawing the beat. The studies differ in that tapping ismonitored using a discretemethod

where each tap represents a discretemoment in time. Instead, drawing ismonitored using a

kinematicdevicethatmeasurescontinuousmovements.Thedrawingconditionallowsastudyof

implicitattuningeffects,thatis,ofcertainbehavioraladaptationstothecharacterofthemusic.

1.1Synchronizationbytappingthebeat

Method

ThepresentexperimentisanalmostexactreplicaofanexperimentcarriedoutbyMcKinney&

Moelants(22)withtypicallydevelopingsubjects.Aselectionofmusicalexcerptswasmadeoutof

thelistofexcerptsusedintheexperimentofMcKinney&Moelants(22),selectingthoseexcerpts

with anunambiguousbeatperceptionby themajorityof the typicallydevelopingparticipants.

TheirresultswereusedascontrolgroupfortheresultsoftheclinicalgroupofsubjectswithASD.

Participants Theclinicalgroupwascomposedof11adultparticipants,allpatientsinacentre

specialised in treatment and guidance of people officially diagnosedwithASD. The groupwas

composedof8menand3women(meanage=30)andwithnormaltohighIQ.Onlysubjectswith

adiagnosisofASD,not combinedwithanyotherdisorder (e.g.ADHD, ...)were included in the

experiment.Allsubjectsweretestedindividuallyandintheirfamiliarsurroundings.

Materialsandstimuli 20 musical excerpts, with genre ranging from classical to pop, film

music,metal(AppendixA)anddurationof30seconds,wereusedinthisexperiment.Allexcerpts

were stored in .wav‐format and the intensitywas normalized in order to avoid differences in

loudness.

Procedure Participantswereaskedtotapalongwiththebeatofthemusicbypressingthe

spacebaronthekeyboardofthecomputer.Itwasstressedthataregularpulseshouldbetapped,

notamorecomplexrhythmicalpattern.Participantswereaskedtotapsimultaneouslywiththe

music,butwhenneededtheycouldrestarttheexcerptasmanytimesastheybelievednecessary.

Duringtheexperimentparticipantsveryrarelyneededordecidedtotakethissecondchance.

Analysis The tapped beats perminute (BPM)were calculated permusical excerpt and

perparticipant, basedon the calculationof themedianof the tapintervals.These resultswere

then compared to the BPM tapped by the majority of the participants in the experiment of

McKinney&Moelants(22)forthesamemusicalexcerpts.

Results

Results show that a majority (54,5%) of the clinical group succeeded very well in this

synchronizationtask.However,aqualitativeanalysisrevealedthatasmallgroupofsubjectswith

ASD(18,2%)hadgreatdifficultiesinsynchronizingtheirtappingwiththebeatofthemusic.Two

groupscouldbedistinguishedwhohadmoredifficultieswith this synchronization task.A first

group(ASD1,3and11)(27,3%)clearlytriedtosynchronizetheirtappingwiththebeatofthe

excerpts,buttheytappedalittlebittoofastorslow(±20BPM).Thesecondgroup(ASD6and8)

(18,2%)tappedveryirregularly.Apparantly,theywereincapableofsynchronizingtheirtapping

with thebeatof themusic.Duringobservation itwasclear thatASD6wasconstantly thinking,

countingandsearchingforpatternsthatcouldbetapped,suggestingthatsynchronizationwith

the beat is not an intuitive process for this subject. In short, in deviant synchronization two

groupscanbedistinguished,namelyagroupthatclearlytriedtosynchronizewiththeexactbeat

butdidnotsucceedexactlyandagroupthatdidnotsynchronizeatall.Inthelightofthepresent

researchit is interestingtoseethatamajorityof theclinicalgroupiscapableofsynchronizing

withthebeatofthemusicandthusareabletoengagewithmusicatthislevel.

1.2Synchronizationandattuningbydrawing

Method

Participants 38 subjects served as participants in this experiments, 11 subjects diagnosed

with ASD in the clinical group and 27 typically developing subjects in the control group. The

clinicalgroupwascomposedofthesamesubjectsasthepreviousexperiment.Thecontrolgroup

was composed of 16 men and 11 women (mean age = 28,3). All participants were tested

individuallyandintheirfamiliarsurroundings.

Materialsandstimuli Eightmusicalexcerpts,withgenreranging fromclassiscal to jazz,pop

andhouse(AppendixB)anddurationof30to35seconds,servedasstimuliinthisexperiment.

They were selected from a larger set of excerpts based on the annotations of a group of six

musicologists.Thisexpertgroupdeterminedtheperceivedtempoandtheaffectivecharacterof

thestimuli.Theresultingsetconsistedofexcerptsranging fromslowto fast tempi,andwitha

fluent or stuttering character. All excerpts were stored in .wav‐format and the intensity was

normalized.

Procedure Participantswere asked to draw along rhythmicallywith themusic, using an

electronic pen and tablet equipment. Theywere also asked to draw alongwith the flowing or

stutteringcharacterof themusic, forexample, fluidorroundmovements fora flowingrhythm

(legato) and angularmovements for a stuttering rhythm (staccato). The participants heard all

excerptstwotimes.Itwasexpectedthattheparticipantswereabletodrawinanimmediateand

spontaneouswayalongwiththemusic,thusresultingintwodrawingsperexcerpt.

Analysis In a first analysis, based on the actual drawings on the tablet, we studied

whether or not participants were able to attune their drawing to the flowing or stuttering

characterofthemusic.Inasecondanalysis,westudiedthedevelopmentofthedrawingsintime.

In this representation, horizontal and vertical axes were summed up and plotted over time.

Thesedatawereusedforaperiodicityanalysis.TheBPM’sextractedfromthisanalysiswerethen

comparedwithreferenceBPM’sforeachstimulus.

Results

Resultsshowthatbothclinicalgroup(76%)andcontrolgroup(83%)wereabletosynchronize

theirdrawingswith the flowingor stuttering characterof themusic.Aminorityof the clinical

grouphadproblemssynchronizing theirdrawings to the characterof themusic (ASD3,6and

11).ASD6andASD11didnotadapttheirdrawingsatalltothechangingcharacterofthemusic

(Figure1a).ASD3didchangethedrawingmovementsoverdifferentstimuli,buttheywerenotin

accordance with the flowing/stuttering character of the music (Figure 1b). The qualitative

analysisof theactualdrawingsalsorevealed thatapartof theclinicalgroup(27%)andof the

controlgroup(37%)instinctivelyadaptedcertainfeaturesoftheirdrawingstothebold/tender

characterofthemusic,althoughtheexperimenttaskdidnotpromptthemtodothis.

Results also show that amajority of the clinical group (64%) and of the control group (85%)

wereabletosynchronizetheirdrawingswiththebeatofthemusicalexcerpts.Theseresultsare

in complete accordance with the results of the previous tapping experiment. The same

participantsoftheclinicalgrouphavedifficultieswiththesynchronizationtask(ASD1,3,8and

11). ASD6 also had great difficulties with the first rhythmical tapping experiment, but he did

succeedinsynchronizinghisdrawingswiththebeat.Hisdrawingshoweverdorevealhissearch

forpatternsinthemusicandaperseveranceforrepetitivemovement(Figure2).

Discussion

Overall,insynchronizeddrawingtomusicpeoplewithASDdisplaylittleornodifferencewitha

control group of typically developing subjects. In both groups, the majority of the subjects

succeedinsynchronizingwiththebeatofthemusic.Moreover,thestudyrevealsthatpeoplewith

ASD are able to corporeally attune to the flowing/stuttering and bold/tender character of the

music.WecanthusconcludethatpeoplewithASDareabletoengagewithmusicatthislevelof

musicalempathy.

2.Graphicalattuningtomelody

Method

Participants Both clinical group and control group are the same as in the previous

experiment.Allparticipantsweretestedindividuallyandintheirfamiliarsurroundings.

Materialsandstimuli 11monophonicmusicalexcerpts,withgenreranging fromclassical to

jazz, pop and filmmusic (AppendixC) andwith a duration of 30 to 35 seconds,wereused as

stimuli in this experiment.Themonophonicmelodies range fromslowandmoreor less static

melodicevolution tomorecomplexmelodicevolution.Allexcerptswerestored in .wav‐format

andtheintensitywasnormalized.

Procedure Participants were asked to draw along with the melodic line of the unison

musicalexcerpts,usinganelectronicpenandtabletequipment.Allparticipantswereinstructed

tomove the pen alongwith the horizontal axis of the tablet.Moving the pen upwards is then

interpretedasanascendingpitchandmovingthependownwardsasadescendingpitch.Given

thatthevastmajorityoftheparticipantsinbothclinicalandcontrolgroupneverhadanymusical

education, all participantswere given an introduction by the researcher and time to practice.

Duringtheexperiment,participantsheardallexcerptstwotimesandwereaskedtodrawalong

duringeachpresentationoftheexcerpt,resultingintwodrawingsperexcerpt.

Analysis Aseriesofplotsaimedatvisualizingthedevelopmentofthedrawingovertime.

Thesedrawingswerethencomparedwiththemelodiccontouroftheexcerpts.Thiscontourwas

extractedfromtheaudiosignal,usingtheMAMIMelodyTranscriber(23).Thesubject’sdrawings

were then compared to the extracted melodic contour. This was done manually and on a

qualitativeratherthanquantitativebasis.

Results

Analysisshowsthatbothclinicalgroupandcontrolgroupcanbedividedintothreesubgroups,

namelyagroupthatattunedtothemelodyinaverypreciseway,asecondgroupthatattunednot

verypreciselyandathirdgroupthatattunedinaverygeneralway(Figure3).

Acomparisonbetweentheclinicalgroupandthecontrolgrouprevealsthatahigherpercentage

ofpeoplewithASDattunesinaveryprecisewaytothemelodiclineofthemusicalexcerpts.In

thecontrolgroup,mostofthesubjectsattuneinaverygeneralwaytothemelodicline(Table1).

Discussion

ThiscorporealattuningexperimentshowsthatthemajorityoftheASD‐subjectsareverycapable

toattunetheirmovementswiththemelodiccontourofthemusicalexcerpts.Comparisonwitha

control group even shows that the subjects with ASD outperform the subjects in the control

group.Theseresultsareinaccordancewithresultsofpreviousstudies(6,9)andcanbeexplained

by theweakurge for central coherence that is characteristic forpeoplewithASD. In theweak

central coherence theory (24), it is assumed that peoplewithASDhave a cognitive stylewhich

biasesprocessinginfavouroflocalfeaturesandpredictsenhancedperformanceontaskswhere

good featural processing conveys an advantage, such as in the present attuning task. This

experimentshowsthatpeoplewithASDtendtodisplaymoreattentiontothedifferentnotesof

themelody,ratherthantothemelodiccontourwhenlisteningtomusic.

3.Attributionofaffectivequalities

The findings of the previous experiment raise the question whether a particular focus on

structural features (rhythm, pitches, a.o.), as seems to be typical for people with ASD, would

implya restriction toa low‐level comprehensionof themusicalexpressionor themusical rich

emotionalcontent.

Method

Participants This experiment is an almost exact replica of an experiment carried out by

Lesaffre(25)withtypicallydevelopingparticipants.Resultsfromthelatterexperimentareusedas

controlfortheresultsfromtheclinicalgrouptestedinthisexperiment.

The clinical group is identical to the clinical group in the previous experiments. The subjects

wereagaintestedindividuallyandintheirfamiliarsurroundings.

Materialsandstimuli 20musicalexcerptswereselectedfromthe160musicalexcerptsused

in the experiment of Lesaffre (25) (Appendix D). Preference was given to those excerpts with

unanimityofaffectiveappreciationamongthetypicallydevelopingparticipants.Allexcerptshad

adurationof30seconds,wereconvertedto.wav‐formatandtheintensitywasnormalized.

Procedure Usingpaperquestionnaires,participantswereaskedtodescribethe20musical

excerpts using affect‐related adjectives. Per excerpt seven unipolar affect‐related adjectives

(anxious, passionate, sad, aggressive, cheerful, careless, tender) had to be evaluated on a five‐

pointscale,andfourbipolaradjectives(hard‐soft,slow‐fast,dynamic‐static, flowing‐stuttering)

hadtobeevaluatedonascalefrom‐4to4.Tolimittheimpactofabilityoflanguageprocessing,

the affect‐related adjectives were visualized using photographs of facial expressions (26). The

recognitionoftheaffectivefacialexpressionsbytheparticipantswastestedbeforeexecutionof

thisexperiment.Theexperimenthadnotimelimitations.

Results

Resultsshowthat theclinicalgroup inthisexperimentappreciatedthemusicalexcerpts inthe

samewayasthetypicallydevelopingsubjects intheexperimentofLesaffre (25).Analysisofthe

calculated correlations for the data set of each participant also show that there is great

consistencyintheanswersoftheparticipants.WecanthusconcludethatpeoplewithASDhave

theabilitytoperceiveaffectinmusicandcanengageinanempathicrelationshipwithmusic.

However,sincetheexperimentdidnothaveanytimelimitations,thedurationoftheexperiment

isalsoanimportantfactortotakeintoaccount.IntheexperimentofLesaffre(25)participantshad

to appreciate160musical excerptsduring four sessionswith40musical excerptsper session.

Dependingontheamountoftimestheparticipantslistenedtoeachmusicalexcerpt,theduration

oftheexperimentforonesessionof40stimulivariedbetween60and120minutes.Themean

time taken to evaluate each excerpt is about two minutes. In the present experiment with a

clinicalgroupofpeoplewithASD,only20musicalexcerptswereoffered.Fortheclinicalgroup,

thedurationof theexperimentvariedbetween140and280minutes (executed in two to four

differentsessions).Inthemean,eachexcerpttookabout10,5minutestoevaluate.

Discussion

ThisexperimentshowsthatpeoplewithASDareabletoassignaffect‐relatedadjectivestomusic,

buttheyneedalotmoretimeandpromptingtocompletethistaskincomparisonwithtypically

developingsubjects.ThepresentfindingsareinaccordancewiththeresultsofHeatonetal.(6)in

which itwas shown that childrenwithASD showednodeficits in processing affect inmusical

stimuli.However,whenwetake intoaccountthedurationof theexperiment,averysignificant

differenceappears.Typicallydevelopingsubjectsareable toevaluate theaffectivecharacterof

musicveryfast,whereassubjectswithASDseemtoreason,evaluateandcompare.Itisafifthey

rely less on corporeal imitation of emotions but more on observation and associated

disembodiedprocessing.Intypicallydevelopingindividuals,themotoractivity,synchronization

and imitation,offersastraigthforwardandspontaneousaccesstoget intothemusic. Inpeople

with ASD, it seems as if this link between corporeal articulation and empathy is less clearly

established. InsteadtheyrelyuponcognitivereasoningandthisexplainswhypeoplewithASD

needalotmoretimeforthistask.

When specifically asked, peoplewithASDare capable of recognizing and attributing affects to

music, they are able to theorize about affective features in themusic, but they clearly rely on

disembodied,cognitiveprocessestocompletethistask.SinceparticipantswithASDarecapable

ofmirroringmusical affects into corporeal articulations but lack a straightforward process to

social cognition, a distinction should be made between a corporeal/embodied engagement –

kinesictheoryofmind–withthemusicontheonehandandemotionalunderstanding–semantic

theoryofmind–ofthemusicontheotherhand(4).Thefindingsofthepresentstudiesshowthat

peoplewithASDarecapableofkinesic theoryofmind, since theyareable to synchronizeand

attunetheirbodywithstructuralandaffectivefeaturesofthemusic,butthisdoesnotenablea

directlinkwithemotionalunderstandingoftheseaffectivefeaturesinthemusic.

Conclusion

Fourexperiments,aimedatinvestigatingthedegreeinwhichpeoplewithASDareabletoengage

withmusic,werecarriedout.Basedontheideathatcoherentperceptionofmusicandemotional

involvementwithmusicispossiblethroughcorporealmediation,theconceptofmusicalempathy

was divided into several gradations, ranging from synchronization and attuning to emotional

involvement.

Theresultsshowthatinsynchronizedtappinganddrawingtomusic,subjectswithASDdisplay

little or no difference with a control group of typically developing subjects. The study also

revealedthatpeoplewithASDareabletocorporeallyattunetheirdrawing,bothinacontrolled

andspontaneousway,toaffectivefeaturesinthemusic.ThemajorityofpeoplewithASDattune

theirmovementswith themelodic contour of themusical excerpts and they outperform their

non‐autistic controlsbymoving inamorepreciseway inaccordwith themelody.Finally, ina

study on verbal description of musical affects we found that people with ASD are capable of

attributing affective qualities tomusic, but they needed significantlymore time than typically

developingcontrols.

The present research shows that people with ASD have a corporeal understanding of the

affectivefeaturesofmusic,sincetheyareabletomirrorstructuralandevenaffectivefeaturesof

the music into corporeal articulations. However, when musical empathy involves emotional

processing,wefoundcleardifferenceswithtypicallydevelopingcontrols.PeoplewithASDseem

to rely on disembodied cognitive processes to attribute affects to music, indicating that their

corporealunderstandingdoesnotgivethemastraightforwardaccesstotheemotionalcontentof

themusic.Furtherstudieswithlargersamplesizesshouldbeconductedtoelaboratefurtheron

thisconcept.

Thepresentstudyshowsthatmusiccanbeusedasatooltodiagnosecertainaspectsofempathic

involvement. Research on musical empathy in people with ASD offers the outline of a new,

comprehensive approach to a better understanding, and possibly diagnosis and treatment of

people with this pervasive social disorder and can also offer a more profound insight in the

processes that involve processing of affective musical features and hence contribute to the

domain of music therapy. This embodied approach to musical empathy could lead to a new

methodologyinmusictherapy.Bytrainingtheembodiedunderstandingofaffectivefeaturesin

music, and clarifying and training the link between this embodiment and the semantic

understanding of the emotions in the music, music therapy may establish and enhance the

automatedprocessofsynchronizationtoemotionalempathywithmusicinsubjectswithASD.

Acknowledgements

Theauthorswish to thanktheFondsvoorWetenschappelijkOnderzoekVlaanderen(FWO) for

fundingthisresearch.Wewould liketothankFrankDesmet,MichelineLesaffre,DirkMoelants

andFrederikStynsfortheirhelpinthesetupandanalysisoftheexperiments.Wealsowantto

thankChristelEmbrechtsofthemusictherapydepartmentofvzwCaritasandthepsychologists

andparticipantsofvzwHetAnker.

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conferenceonmusicinformationretrieval(ISMIR2003),245‐246.

24FrithU.(1989).Autism:Explainingtheenigma.Blackwell.

25 Lesaffre M. (2005).Music information retrieval: Conceptual framework, annotation and user

behaviour.Unpublisheddoctoraldissertation,GhentUniversity.

26EkmanP.(1992).Anargumentforbasicemotions.CognitionEmotion,6,169‐200.

Correspondingaddress

LeenDeBruyn,GhentUniversity,DepartmentofMusicology(IPEM),Blandijnberg2,9000Gent,

Belgium,Email:Leen.DeBruyn@UGent.be

Tables

Subgroups ASD CG

general 18% 44%

precise 27% 19%

veryprecise 55% 37%

Table1: PercentagesofASD(clinicalgroup)andCG(controlgroup)thatattune

tomelodyinageneral,preciseandveryprecisewaytothemelodicline.

Figures

Figure1: (a)Rhythmical drawings ofASD6 for the bold and stuttering excerpt 3 (Nitro

doll – Rocket City Riot) and the tender and flowing excerpt 4 (Pavan ‘Lord

Salisbury’–OrlandoGibbons).(b)RhythmicaldrawingsofASD3forexcerpts3

and4.

Figure2: Rhythmical drawing of ASD6 for excerpt 2, showing a perseverance for a

repetitivepatterninthemusic.

Figure3: Visual representations of the graphical attuning to the melodic contour for

excerpt1.Inthecolumnsyouseeacomparisonofsubjectsintheclinicalgroup

(ASD)andthecontrolgroup(CG).Intherowsyouseeacomparisonofsubjects

thatattunedtothemelodyinaveryexact,exactandgeneralway.

Appendix

ExcerptNumber Title Performer/Composer BPM

Excerpt1 Lavalsed’Amélie YannTiersen 49

Excerpt2 AoiHitomi MaayaSakamoto 52

Excerpt3 Zij MarcoBorsato 56

Excerpt4 Artichoke CiboMatto 60

Excerpt5 Devilgotmywoman SkipJames 80

Excerpt6 Crockett’sTheme JanHammer 96

Excerpt7 Inch’Allah McSolaar 103

Excerpt8 Beencaughtstealing Jane’saddiction 104

Excerpt9 Respect OtisRedding 114

Excerpt10 Highwaytohell AC/DC 115

Excerpt11 Azzuro AdrianoCelentano 118

Excerpt12 Comedi PaoloConte 130

Excerpt13 Threeo’three Publicenergy 140

Excerpt14 TheMessage Zolex 140

Excerpt15 Cometakemyhand 2brothersonthe4thfloor 168

Excerpt16 I’lltakeyoualltofuckinghell Scarface 170

Excerpt17 Torremolinos Sttellla 176

Excerpt18 Sabeldans AramKhachaturian 178

Excerpt19 SilverRocket SonicYouth 185

Excerpt20 Elgatolopez Ska‐P 220

AppendixA: Listofstimuliusedinthesynchronizationbytappingexperiment.

Excerpt

Number

Title Performer/Composer Character BPM

Excerpt1 Triosonateop.2,no.

2ing‐minor

(allegro)

GeorgFriedrichHändel Stuttering 94

Excerpt2 Disconnected Emma’sMini Flowing 88

Excerpt3 Nitrodoll RocketCityRiot Stuttering 193

Excerpt4 Pavan“Lord

Salisbury”

OrlandoGibbons Flowing 77

Excerpt5 TranceOdyssey DJMarkitos Stuttering 150

Excerpt6 Heynowbabus TomPaul Flowing 83

Excerpt7 MaloSelo Kitka Flowing 54

Excerpt8 Einfach,

Davidsbündlertänze

op.6,no.11

RobertSchumann Flowing 91

AppendixB: Listofstimuliusedinthesynchronizationbydrawingexperiment.

ExcerptNumber Title Performer/Composer

Excerpt1 Oquammirabilisest HildegardvonBingen

Excerpt2 SequenzaIforflutesolo LucianoBerio

Excerpt3 Alleluia Chantdel’égliseMilanese

Excerpt4 SoloLuc OllaVogala

Excerpt5 LaDispute YannTiersen

Excerpt6 Saxophonesolo /

Excerpt7 Flutesolo /

Excerpt8 Wampumprayer ToriAmos

Excerpt9 Violinandrecorder /

Excerpt10 Double‐basssolo /

Excerpt11 LeMoulin YannTiersen

AppendixC: Listofstimuliusedinthemelodicattuningexperiment.

ExcerptNumber Title Performer/Composer

Excerpt1 Ah,vitabella LucillaGeleazzi

Excerpt2 LeSacreduPrintemps IgorStravinski

Excerpt3 Concertoforviolinandorchestra,Canzonetta PjotrTchaikovski

Excerpt4 St.Anger Metallica

Excerpt5 Therobots Kraftwerk

Excerpt6 Manymeetings HowardShore

Excerpt7 PianoconcertoNr.1inc,op.18,3rdmovement SergeiRachmaninov

Excerpt8 Achterbank DeNieuweSnaar

Excerpt9 TearsinHeaven EricClapton

Excerpt10 Tame ThePixies

Excerpt11 Traffic DJTiesto

Excerpt12 OneStep TamEchoTam

Excerpt13 Atisketatasket EllaFitzgerald

Excerpt14 MessadeRequiem,DiesIrae GuiseppeVerdi

Excerpt15 DieWalküre,Vorspiel RichardWagner

Excerpt16 GymnopédieNo.1 EricSatie

Excerpt17 MyWorld Metallica

Excerpt18 Fromthecradletoenslave CradleofFilth

Excerpt19 Libertango AstorPiazolla

Excerpt20 TicTicTac Carrapicho

AppendixD: Listofstimuliusedintheaffectattributionexperiment.