Interesting! I never heard that, though I don't read up a lot on autism even though I was diagnosed as autistic over a decade ago.

I've assumed sometimes that my facility with languages and mimicking accents has something to do with my autism. I noticed the ability for the first time when I was in a cab in Frankfurt, Germany, having just arrived by train from West Berlin where I was stationed in the military.

My German wasn't very good yet, though it would later become pretty good. But when I spoke to the cab driver in German, he instantly commented that it was nice to see somebody in his cab from Berlin. Then and he went into a long, fast string of German that I could only understand bits of. I interrupted him to apologize and tell him that my German was limited.

He sounded really surprised and told me my accent made me sound like I was a Berliner.

I get that sometimes with other languages too. My French is pretty good, but not native. Nonetheless, I can do Metropolitan or Montreal accents convincing enough to get me in trouble (and out of my depth like in that cab.). Lol

The psychologist who diagnosed me as autistic told my "special interest" in languages and accents was a contributing factor in his decision to ask me if I wanted to be tested for autism.

It's very interesting to me that it could also work the other way around!