Journal
BRAIN AND COGNITION
Volume 79, Issue 3, Pages 209-215Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2012.03.008
Keywords
Congenital amusia; Pitch threshold; Melodic contour deafness; Pitch direction; Stimulus type
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Funding
- Shanghai Normal University
- Neurosciences Research Foundation
- Neurosciences Institute
- Fund for Scientific Research of the Flemish Government
- IOF of the European Commission [PIOF-GA-2009-252730]
- Victorian Governmen
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This study examined whether melodic contour deafness (insensitivity to the direction of pitch movement) in congenital amusia is associated with specific types of pitch patterns (discrete versus gliding pitches) or stimulus types (speech syllables versus complex tones). Thresholds for identification of pitch direction were obtained using discrete or gliding pitches in the syllable /ma/ or its complex tone analog, from nineteen amusics and nineteen controls, all healthy university students with Mandarin Chinese as their native language. Amusics, unlike controls, had more difficulty recognizing pitch direction in discrete than in gliding pitches, for both speech and non-speech stimuli. Also, amusic thresholds were not significantly affected by stimulus types (speech versus non-speech), whereas controls showed lower thresholds for tones than for speech. These findings help explain why amusics have greater difficulty with discrete musical pitch perception than with speech perception, in which continuously changing pitch movements are prevalent. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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