Linguistic and Musical Syntax Processing in Autistic and Non-Autistic Individuals: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Study.

Researchers studied how autistic people process grammar rules in language and music. They found that autistic participants could identify correct and incorrect grammar as well as non-autistic people, but their brain responses were weaker and slower when processing these rules in both language and music. This suggests autistic people may use similar brain resources for understanding grammar in both areas.

This ERP study investigated whether autistic individuals show similar difficulties processing syntax in both language and music, testing the Shared Syntactic Integration Resource Hypothesis (SSIRH). Thirty-one autistic and 31 non-autistic participants judged syntactically correct and incorrect sentences and musical sequences while brain activity was recorded. Despite achieving similar accuracy on behavioral tasks, autistic participants showed reduced and delayed P600 neural responses - a marker of syntactic integration - in both language and music domains. This provides the first direct evidence for parallel syntactic processing difficulties across both domains in autism, supporting the SSIRH theory.

Findings suggest that music-based interventions might leverage shared syntactic processing resources to support language development in autism. However, preserved behavioral performance despite altered neural responses indicates compensatory mechanisms may be at work, requiring careful assessment approaches.

Single study design limits generalizability. Sample size of 31 per group is relatively small for ERP research. Abstract does not report participant characteristics, matching procedures, or control for confounding variables that could influence results.

Syntactic processing in both language and music involves combining elements-such as words or chords-into coherent structures. The Shared Syntactic Integration Resource Hypothesis (SSIRH) was introduced based on observations of similar neural responses to syntactic violations across both domains. This hypothesis suggests that difficulties in syntactic processing in one domain may result in similar challenges in the other. The current study tested the SSIRH in autism, a neurodevelopmental condition often associated with language difficulties but relatively preserved musical abilities.

Thirty-one autistic and 31 non-autistic participants judged the acceptability of syntactically congruent and incongruent sentences and musical sequences while their neural responses were recorded using electroencephalography. Autistic participants exhibited a reduced and delayed P600 effect-a marker of syntactic integration-across both domains, despite achieving similar behavioral accuracy to the non-autistic group. These findings suggest parallel difficulties in syntactic processing in autism for both language and music, providing support for the SSIRH. This is the first study to directly examine real-time syntactic integration in both domains in autistic individuals, offering novel insights into cross-domain syntactic processing in autism and contributing to a deeper understanding of language and music processing more broadly.