A Systematic Review of Scientific Studies on the Effects of Music in People with or at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Impact of Relaxation and Music Intervention on Psychological and Gastrointestinal Health in Military Recruits: A Prospective Study

Background and aims

Gastrointestinal symptoms are closely associated with psychological problems, such as anxiety and depression. This prospective before-after study aimed to explore whether progressive muscular relaxation training combined with music intervention, which is potentially beneficial for psychological conditions, can improve gastrointestinal symptoms.

Methods

A total of 623 recruits' effective questionnaires before and after intervention were collected. They underwent progressive muscular relaxation training combined with music intervention for 4 weeks. They also completed the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for assessment of depression, the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) for assessment of anxiety, the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) for assessment of gastrointestinal symptoms, and the Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSFS) for assessment of stool before and after interventions. Changes of psychological conditions and gastrointestinal symptoms were evaluated.

Results

The SDS (P<0.001), PHQ-9 (P<0.001), SAS (P<0.001), GAD-7 (P<0.001), and GSRS (P<0.001) scores were significantly decreased after intervention. The proportions of regurgitation (P<0.001), abdominal pain (P<0.001), dyspepsia (P<0.001), and constipation (P<0.001) evaluated by the GSRS were significantly decreased after intervention, but not diarrhea (P=0.601). The proportions of severe (P<0.001) and mild (P<0.001) constipation evaluated by the BSFS decreased after intervention, but those of severe (P=0.632) and mild (P<0.001) diarrhea evaluated by the BSFS increased.

Conclusion

Short-term progressive muscular relaxation training in combination with music intervention is potentially effective for most gastrointestinal symptoms, but not for diarrhea, in recruits.

Available Treatments for Autism Spectrum Disorder: From Old Strategies to New Options

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a condition that is gaining increasing interest in research and clinical fields. Due to the improvement of screening programs and diagnostic procedures, an increasing number of cases are reaching clinical attention. Despite this, the available pharmacological options for treating ASD-related symptoms are still very limited, and while a wide number of studies are focused on children or adolescents, there is a need to increase research about the treatment of ASD in adult subjects. Given this framework, this work aims to review the available literature about pharmacological treatments for ASD, from older strategies to possible new therapeutic targets for this condition, which are often poorly responsive to available resources. The literature, besides confirming the efficacy of the approved drugs for ASD, shows a lack of adequate research for several psychopharmacological treatments despite possible promising results that need to be further investigated.

Collaborative arts therapies as a supportive intervention for autism spectrum disorders: Bibliometric analysis, insights, and directions

Purpose

Arts therapies (ATs) for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has attracted widespread attention from scholars. However, resources, technical, and ethical issues still pose significant obstacles to current research. A collaborative design approach is needed to guide the intervention treatment process involving multiple stakeholders. Therefore, this study focuses on exploring the current status, development and potential value of the collaborative arts therapies (CATs), providing a comprehensive perspective for subsequent research.

Methods

The Web of Science, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Cochrane Library were searched for publications up to August 30, 2023, related to the use of CATs for the treatment of ASD. CiteSpace was used to build a knowledge graph to achieve visual analysis of current research countries, institutions, journals, authors, and hot topics.

Results

A total of 845 articles met the inclusion criteria. In terms of quantity, the USA is the leading country which has the greatest influence in advancing the field. The University of Haifa is the most productive institution. Arteterapia Papeles De Arteterapia Y Educacion Artistica and Frontiers in Psychology occupy key publishing positions. The most central keywords were related to the quality of life of people with ASD. "family", "social robot" and "participation" are emerging topics in the research field. The positive impact of the combination of caregivers, technology and artistic media on enhancing connections between people with ASD and their everyday environment is the focus of current research.

Conclusions

Research on CATs as an adjunctive therapy for the treatment of ASD is evolving. Providing comprehensive rehabilitation and support intervention for patients with ASD is a key research direction. The research process requires more interdisciplinary resources and technical assistance. Collaboration will be the best way to improve the effectiveness of ATs.

A Self-Narrative Study: Changes in Physical Ability and Social Communication in Children with Autism through Taekwondo Training with Elements of Music Therapy from the Parents' Perspective

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) significantly affects social and motor skills development in early, middle or even late childhood. To promote social and motor skills development among autistic children, an intervention consisting of Taekwondo and elements of music therapy was designed and implemented in Hong Kong. The objective of the current study is to investigate the effectiveness of this training, based on parents' observations of their children who had completed the key stage of the training. Thirteen parents or caregivers (n = 13) whose children with autism participated in our Taekwondo training for two months were interviewed. Three major themes were identified by thematic analysis: (A) social skills-related change after the intervention, (B) motor skills-related change after the intervention, (C) characteristics of the intervention (i.e., session arrangement, tutor/coach attitude). Our findings show that our training was perceived by parents to have a significant impact on the promotion of physical ability and social communication in autistic children.

Improved emotion differentiation under reduced acoustic variability of speech in autism

BACKGROUND

Socio-emotional impairments are among the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the actual knowledge has substantiated both altered and intact emotional prosodies recognition. Here, a Bayesian framework of perception is considered suggesting that the oversampling of sensory evidence would impair perception within highly variable environments. However, reliable hierarchical structures for spectral and temporal cues would foster emotion discrimination by autistics.

METHODS

Event-related spectral perturbations (ERSP) extracted from electroencephalographic (EEG) data indexed the perception of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, neutral, and sadness prosodies while listening to speech uttered by (a) human or (b) synthesized voices characterized by reduced volatility and variability of acoustic environments. The assessment of mechanisms for perception was extended to the visual domain by analyzing the behavioral accuracy within a non-social task in which dynamics of precision weighting between bottom-up evidence and top-down inferences were emphasized. Eighty children (mean 9.7 years old; standard deviation 1.8) volunteered including 40 autistics. The symptomatology was assessed at the time of the study via the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition, and parents' responses on the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales. A mixed within-between analysis of variance was conducted to assess the effects of group (autism versus typical development), voice, emotions, and interaction between factors. A Bayesian analysis was implemented to quantify the evidence in favor of the null hypothesis in case of non-significance. Post hoc comparisons were corrected for multiple testing.

RESULTS

Autistic children presented impaired emotion differentiation while listening to speech uttered by human voices, which was improved when the acoustic volatility and variability of voices were reduced. Divergent neural patterns were observed from neurotypicals to autistics, emphasizing different mechanisms for perception. Accordingly, behavioral measurements on the visual task were consistent with the over-precision ascribed to the environmental variability (sensory processing) that weakened performance. Unlike autistic children, neurotypicals could differentiate emotions induced by all voices.

CONCLUSIONS

This study outlines behavioral and neurophysiological mechanisms that underpin responses to sensory variability. Neurobiological insights into the processing of emotional prosodies emphasized the potential of acoustically modified emotional prosodies to improve emotion differentiation by autistics.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

BioMed Central ISRCTN Registry, ISRCTN18117434. Registered on September 20, 2020.