Cortical Thickness in Congenital Amusia: When Less Is Better Than More

Hyde, Krista L.; Lerch, Jason P.; Zatorre, Robert J.; Griffiths, Timothy D.; Evans, Alan C.; Peretz, Isabelle

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.3039-07.2007

Cited by 256 publications

(222 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Structural neuroimaging data reveal subtle differences in the brains of individuals with congenital amusia in the inferior frontal cortex and superior temporal areas, variously in the left hemisphere (20,21) or the right (22). The finding of morphological differences outside the temporal cortex is congruent with findings from functional imaging studies showing activation of frontal and temporal areas when pitch information must be integrated or compared over time (23)(24)(25)(26).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced sensitivity to emotional prosody in congenital amusia rekindles the musical protolanguage hypothesis

Thompson

Marin

Stewart

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

126

107

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A number of evolutionary theories assume that music and language have a common origin as an emotional protolanguage that remains evident in overlapping functions and shared neural circuitry. The most basic prediction of this hypothesis is that sensitivity to emotion in speech prosody derives from the capacity to process music. We examined sensitivity to emotion in speech prosody in a sample of individuals with congenital amusia, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in processing acoustic and structural attributes of music. Twelve individuals with congenital amusia and 12 matched control participants judged the emotional expressions of 96 spoken phrases. Phrases were semantically neutral but prosodic cues (tone of voice) communicated each of six emotional states: happy, tender, afraid, irritated, sad, and no emotion. Congenitally amusic individuals were significantly worse than matched controls at decoding emotional prosody, with decoding rates for some emotions up to 20% lower than that of matched controls. They also reported difficulty understanding emotional prosody in their daily lives, suggesting some awareness of this deficit. The findings support speculations that music and language share mechanisms that trigger emotional responses to acoustic attributes, as predicted by theories that propose a common evolutionary link between these domains.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced sensitivity to emotional prosody in congenital amusia rekindles the musical protolanguage hypothesis

Thompson

Marin

Stewart

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

126

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In a subsequent study abnormal cortical thickness was demonstrated in the right superior temporal lobe and the right frontal operculum (Fig 1). 17 …”

Section: Basis For the Phenotype 2: Direct Evidence For A Cortical DImentioning

confidence: 99%

Tone deafness: a model complex cortical phenotype

Griffiths

2008

Clinical Medicine

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-We all know people with tone deafness: these are the people who get thrown out of the choir at school. Although tone deafness is recognised as an output disorder, recent studies have characterised it as one of music perception in the absence of deafness or any associated cognitive disorder. The disorder can therefore be characterised as a form of auditory agnosia. This article considers how the phenotype might be deconstructed to the level of a causal deficit in the perception of pitch pattern. Based on our evolving understanding of the normal brain bases for this process a cortical deficit beyond primary cortex would be predicted. In tone deafness, structural cortical variations have been demonstrated by recent studies that detect subtle changes in the cortical mantle and underlying white matter: these changes are within a right hemisphere network for pitch pattern analysis and working memory for pitch. Studies of multiply affected families are underway to see if the disruption of this network can be caused by single genes. This disorder therefore offers the opportunity to study how a complex phenotype can be characterised as a cortical perceptual disorder potentially explained by a single gene or molecule. Although tone deafness is not pernicious, the underlying abnormality may prove to be a disorder of cortical connectivity that provides a model for disorders that are more so, such as schizophrenia.

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“…Congenital amusia is a neurogenetic disorder that is characterized by a deficit in melody processing that cannot be explained by hearing loss or intellectual deficiencies (30). Congenital amusia is hereditary (31,32) and is associated with reduced connectivity between the right auditory and inferior frontal cortices (33)(34)(35). The root functional cause of the musical impairments appears to lie in the processing of pitch.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The basis of musical consonance as revealed by congenital amusia

Cousineau

McDermott

Peretz

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

108

164

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Some combinations of musical notes sound pleasing and are termed "consonant," but others sound unpleasant and are termed "dissonant." The distinction between consonance and dissonance plays a central role in Western music, and its origins have posed one of the oldest and most debated problems in perception. In modern times, dissonance has been widely believed to be the product of "beating": interference between frequency components in the cochlea that has been believed to be more pronounced in dissonant than consonant sounds. However, harmonic frequency relations, a higher-order sound attribute closely related to pitch perception, has also been proposed to account for consonance. To tease apart theories of musical consonance, we tested sound preferences in individuals with congenital amusia, a neurogenetic disorder characterized by abnormal pitch perception. We assessed amusics' preferences for musical chords as well as for the isolated acoustic properties of beating and harmonicity. In contrast to control subjects, amusic listeners showed no preference for consonance, rating the pleasantness of consonant chords no higher than that of dissonant chords. Amusics also failed to exhibit the normally observed preference for harmonic over inharmonic tones, nor could they discriminate such tones from each other. Despite these abnormalities, amusics exhibited normal preferences and discrimination for stimuli with and without beating. This dissociation indicates that, contrary to classic theories, beating is unlikely to underlie consonance. Our results instead suggest the need to integrate harmonicity as a foundation of music preferences, and illustrate how amusia may be used to investigate normal auditory function. music perception | aesthetic preferences | roughness

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Cortical Thickness in Congenital Amusia: When Less Is Better Than More

Cited by 256 publications

References 31 publications

Reduced sensitivity to emotional prosody in congenital amusia rekindles the musical protolanguage hypothesis

Reduced sensitivity to emotional prosody in congenital amusia rekindles the musical protolanguage hypothesis

Tone deafness: a model complex cortical phenotype

The basis of musical consonance as revealed by congenital amusia

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