Congenital Amusia

Peretz, Isabelle; Ayotte, Julie; Zatorre, Robert J.; Mehler, Jacques; Ahad, Pierre; Penhune, Virginia B.; Jutras, Benoît

doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(01)00580-3

Cited by 291 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Among other characteristics, amusia is associated with an impaired ability to perceive small pitch differences3435. At the group level, the amusic participants in our study had significantly higher pitch discrimination thresholds than those of controls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 49%

“…40). These early-stage impairments may then have a cascade effect upon later stages34, regardless of the domain (music or language). Indeed, other research on congenital amusia suggests that an early-stage pitch deficit can significantly affect late-stage pitch-related language processing, such as speech intonation32, lexical tone41 and emotional speech prosody42.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pitch discrimination associated with phonological awareness: Evidence from congenital amusia

Sun

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Research suggests that musical skills are associated with phonological abilities. To further investigate this association, we examined whether phonological impairments are evident in individuals with poor music abilities. Twenty individuals with congenital amusia and 20 matched controls were assessed on a pure-tone pitch discrimination task, a rhythm discrimination task, and four phonological tests. Amusic participants showed deficits in discriminating pitch and discriminating rhythmic patterns that involve a regular beat. At a group level, these individuals performed similarly to controls on all phonological tests. However, eight amusics with severe pitch impairment, as identified by the pitch discrimination task, exhibited significantly worse performance than all other participants in phonological awareness. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated that pitch discrimination thresholds predicted phonological awareness beyond that predicted by phonological short-term memory and rhythm discrimination. In contrast, our rhythm discrimination task did not predict phonological awareness beyond that predicted by pitch discrimination thresholds. These findings suggest that accurate pitch discrimination is critical for phonological processing. We propose that deficits in early-stage pitch discrimination may be associated with impaired phonological awareness and we discuss the shared role of pitch discrimination for processing music and speech.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 49%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pitch discrimination associated with phonological awareness: Evidence from congenital amusia

Sun

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…Congenital amusia is a developmental disorder that affects the processing of musical pitch (Ayotte et al, 2002; Peretz et al, 2002). Recent evidence suggests that this deficit may extend to speech, affecting the processing of speech prosody (Patel et al, 2008; Liu et al, 2010) and lexical tones (Nan et al, 2010; Tillmann et al, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Categorical perception of lexical tones in mandarin-speaking congenital amusics

et al. 2015

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Previous research suggests that within Mandarin-speaking congenital amusics, only a subgroup has behavioral lexical tone perception impairments (tone agnosia), whereas the rest of amusics do not. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the categorical nature of lexical tone perception in Mandarin-speaking amusics with and without behavioral lexical tone deficits. Three groups of listeners (controls, pure amusics, and amusics with tone agnosia) participated in tone identification and discrimination tasks. Indexes of the categorical perception (CP) of a physical continuum of fundamental frequencies ranging from a rising to level tone were measured. Specifically, the stimulus durations were manipulated at 100 and 200 ms. For both stimulus durations, all groups exhibited similar categorical boundaries. The pure amusics showed sharp identification slopes and significantly peaked discrimination functions similar to those of normal controls. However, such essential characteristics for the CP of lexical tones were not observed in amusics with tone agnosia. An enlarged step-size from 20 to 35 Hz was not able to produce any discrimination peaks in tone agnosics either. The current study revealed that only amusics with tone agnosia showed a lack of categorical tone perception, while the pure amusics demonstrated typical CP of lexical tones, indicating that the deficit of pitch processing in music does not necessarily result in the deficit in the CP of lexical tones. The different performance between congenital amusics with and without tone agnosia provides a new perspective on the proposition of the relationship between music and speech perception.

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“…About 3% of the general population have difficulty detecting notes that are out-of-key in melodies, against a background of normal hearing, language and intelligence, and adequate environmental exposure [35]. The condition, often called tone-deafness, is now referred to as congenital amusia to distinguish this lifelong disorder from acquired forms of amusia that occur as the result of brain lesion [36,37]. Congenital amusia is not only characterized by a deficit in detecting mistuning in both melodic and acoustical contexts, but also by an inability to recognize familiar tunes without the help of the lyrics and difficulties to sing in tune.…”

Section: Musicality At the Extremes (A) Disorders Of Music Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining the biological bases of individual differences in musicality

Gingras

Honing

Peretz

et al. 2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One contribution of 12 to a theme issue 'Biology, cognition and origins of musicality'. Advances in molecular technologies make it possible to pinpoint genomic factors associated with complex human traits. For cognition and behaviour, identification of underlying genes provides new entry points for deciphering the key neurobiological pathways. In the past decade, the search for genetic correlates of musicality has gained traction. Reports have documented familial clustering for different extremes of ability, including amusia and absolute pitch (AP), with twin studies demonstrating high heritability for some music-related skills, such as pitch perception. Certain chromosomal regions have been linked to AP and musical aptitude, while individual candidate genes have been investigated in relation to aptitude and creativity. Most recently, researchers in this field started performing genome-wide association scans. Thus far, studies have been hampered by relatively small sample sizes and limitations in defining components of musicality, including an emphasis on skills that can only be assessed in trained musicians. With opportunities to administer standardized aptitude tests online, systematic large-scale assessment of musical abilities is now feasible, an important step towards high-powered genome-wide screens. Here, we offer a synthesis of existing literatures and outline concrete suggestions for the development of comprehensive operational tools for the analysis of musical phenotypes.

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Congenital Amusia

Cited by 291 publications

References 20 publications

Pitch discrimination associated with phonological awareness: Evidence from congenital amusia

Pitch discrimination associated with phonological awareness: Evidence from congenital amusia

Categorical perception of lexical tones in mandarin-speaking congenital amusics

Defining the biological bases of individual differences in musicality

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