Why autistic men tend to have higher pitched voices

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I have noticed that autistic guys do seem to have a higher pitched voice then average. Nothing too major, but enough to notice. I've noticed this in myself, some of my ND friends, and even Alex Plank when watching his videos on WP. It probably even contributes to people underestimating our age. I may have a small sample size, but it is something that I've noticed and wondered about. I had no idea why this might be, until today that is.

Today Sci Show released this video:

(Skip to 2:30)

It mentions that the pitch of the male voice is lowered by higher levels of testosterone and lower levels of cortisol. Cortisol inhibits the effects of testosterone and levels of it rise in response to distress and illness. Autistic people tend to have a lot of anxiety and distress, so it makes sense that our voices would tend to not be as deep as normal.

I just found that interesting, so I decided to share it here.

Well one dude I met at the autism walk/expo sounded like he sucked up all the helium in the balloon. Surely thats just one guy though so that doesn't speak for everyone.

When people who have only seen me type finally hear me speak (such as in my YouTube videos) they say that they never imagined I sounded the way I do.

Well, then...how DO you sound?

Like a twelve year old with a raspy voice. And, according to some, I sound British. Really, I have been told that by so many people. I don't hear it thou.

I've had difficulties with my hormone levels throughout my whole life, had to get treatment for it. Things are more balanced now, thank god, I used to be so emotional it was ridiculous, during puberty I actually grew BOOBS - due to my hormone levels, probably a little bit to do with my weight. My voice has always been high pitched, however it's alot less embarrassing than it was because it's more coarse and croaky due to cigarettes. Makes me sound like how I'd imagine Holden Caulfield would, lol. Damn phonies!

I have been told that too. I figure it's because I watch a lot of British media (like Doctor Who) and when I'm exposed to an accent enough then I will quickly start picking it up. Besides American, British is the accent I have heard the most so it makes sense that that's the one I would be picking on.

I don't even watch British media (aside from BBC docs).

I have done a bit of research a while ago about autism and accents (because what else would I be doing with my time) and there are a lot of aspies outside the United States who sound like they have a badly faked American accent. This seems to be because of our tendency to use a more monotone voice, and aperently an American accent has less vocal inflection then other accents so a lack of vocal inflection sounds more American. For aspies in the United States their accent still doesn't sound quite American a lot of the time. It could be that something like this is happening with us.

That's an interesting theory.

One time I was told I sounded Polish too. I have gotten made fun of before because of how raspy my voice is.

I have been listening to Numa Numa on repeat all day (which is in Romanian) and for the last few hours my accent has picked up a lot of Romanian elements like in the way I pronounce my R's. It will probably be gone by tomorrow if I don't continue obsessing over that song, which is not going to happen any time soon.

If I moved to another country then my accent would probably change to match the local one in just a matter of days, although it probably wouldn't be perfect just as my normal American one sounds a bit British. The topic of autism and accents is definitely an interesting one.

They do?

Looking back on it, I would say it's as common as non autistic people's voice pitch.

Perhaps we should start a thread about it sometime.

I think I have a slightly deeper voice than normal when I'm comfortable, but when I'm uncomfortable my voice seems to shift to slightly higher than average. I think I speak in different tones depending on the situation. For example, when speaking to authorities & family I speak with a slightly higher tone, but around friends I speak in my normal, comfortable tone. I can't control when I use which tone, it just happens.

I've also been told that I have a slightly British accent. I agree in part with the theory above that we pick up accents from media, but I don't have any parts of an American accent and that's the accent I hear most in the media. I'm Australian.

I think I will start a poll about that soon. From what I've seen on this thread so far is does seem to be the case.

My 13 year old brother has a deeper voice then me, there must be a reason for that.

EDIT: I posted the aforementioned poll here.

Last edited by mikeman7918 on 01 May 2016, 12:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

Voice is in part learned, part intrinsic. That is, how thick a man's vocal cords are & thus how low his voice (with help from a bigger chest cavity) is based on hormones at puberty. Once they thicken as much as they are going to, they are set for life (baring damage). However, different cultures use different parts of a person's natural range.

Could be more autistic men are closer to sex-neutral in that one respect, could be that they didn't learn from observation that to be a manly man in our culture they should use the lower registers of their voice. My opinion leans more toward it being due to a mix of both.