 Pitch is everywhere in our environment. In Mandarin, pitch can differentiate word meaning, such as ma, mother, versus ma, horse. In English, pitch can separate the statement from a question, as in Emily versus Emily. In music, we judge if a note is out of key by comparing pitch with other notes. So making sense of pitch in music and the language is essential. However, individuals with congenital amnesia, such as Freud, have difficulties with pitch processing in music, but not in language, whereas those with autism spectrum disorders, such as Mozart, have enhanced the music processing, but in reduced language processing. So it's possible that where words fail, music speaks and vice versa. Studying the differences in music and language processing in amnesia and autism help us understand the underlying mechanisms of pitch processing in both domains. So congenital amnesia affects around four percent of us. Individuals with amnesia cannot sing in tune or detect out of tune notes in melodies, but have normal language abilities. Amnesia has a strong genetic component, and it's not caused by brain damage, low intelligence, or lack of exposure to music. Now let's listen to how A-music and non-A-music participants emitted pitch in speech and song. So neither group emitted pitch in speech well, but those without amnesia emitted musical pitch much better than those with amnesia. In other words, precision in pitch is required for music, but not necessary for speech, which is why A-music individuals cannot sing but can speak proficiently. In addition, speakers tend to imitate the functional speech, that is the meaning of what's said, rather than its form, the way it's said. When asked to imitate the rising pitch of a question, some A-music participants ask the question in their own way. So music is form-driven, pitch is for aesthetics, speech is function-driven, pitch represents functional contrasts. The form taken by pitch in speech is a means for communication, but for music it's the end. As a result, A-music individuals have no problems with linguistic functions but have trouble with musical forms. Autism, on the other hand, is associated with enhanced music processing but reduced language processing. Around four percent of us have autism showing atypical social communication and repetitive behavior. Autism has environmental, genetic, and physiological origins. Individuals with autism generally have increased low-level pitch processing and enhanced short-term and long-term pitch memory with detail-oriented cognitive processing styles that show reduced ability to generalize similarities between objects and also established categories. In our recent study, we compared music and language processing in A-music and autistic individuals who speak Mandarin. We used melodic contour and intonation identification task. Participants judged whether melody has a down-up-down or up-down-up contour or the sentence is a statement or question. So in terms of pitch perception and memory, the music task is more demanding than the language task. However, individuals with autism get much better on the music task than the language task. In contrast, those with amnesia get better on language than the music task. So this indicates that autistic individuals struggle with linguistic functions but excel in musical form processing. So the normal linguistic and music processing requires balance in the encoding and decoding of form and function with music focused on form and language focused on function. We're conducting a series of behavioral and neurophysiological experiments to study form and function processing in music language in Mandarin and English-speaking individuals with autism and amnesia. The findings will deepen our knowledge of both conditions and also help develop intervention programs. Being able to speak, sing and express ourselves is fundamental. Well, speaking and singing are natural to most of us. They can be beyond the reach of those with amnesia and autism. What you and I working across different disciplines can do to help them.