Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, characterised by deficits
in socialisation and communication, with repetitive and stereotyped
behaviours American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and
statistical manual for mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC:
APA. Whilst intellectual and language impairment is observed in
a significant proportion of diagnosed individuals Gillberg, C.,
& Coleman, M. (2000). The biology of the autistic syndromes (3rd
ed.). London: Mac Keith Press; Klinger, L., Dawson, G., & Renner,
P. (2002). Autistic disorder. In E. Masn, & R. Barkley (Eds.), Child
pyschopathology (2nd ed., pp. 409-454). New York: Guildford Press,
the disorder is also strongly associated with the presence of highly
developed, idiosyncratic, or savant skills Heaton, P., & Wallace,
G. (2004) Annotation: The savant syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology
and Psychiatry, 45 (5), 899-911. We tested identification of fundamental
pitch frequencies in complex tones, sine tones and words in AC, an
intellectually able man with autism and absolute pitch (AP) and a
group of healthy controls with self-reported AP. The analysis showed
that AC's naming of speech pitch was highly superior in comparison
to controls. The results suggest that explicit access to perceptual
information in speech is retained to a significantly higher degree
in autism.