Search results for "Tone deafness"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
Amusic does not mean unmusical: Beat perception and synchronization ability despite pitch deafness
2013
Pitch deafness, the most commonly known form of congenital amusia, refers to a severe deficit in musical pitch processing (i.e., melody discrimination and recognition) that can leave time processing--including rhythm, metre, and "feeling the beat"--preserved. In Experiment 1, we show that by presenting musical excerpts in nonpitched drum timbres, rather than pitched piano tones, amusics show normal metre recognition. Experiment 2 reveals that body movement influences amusics' interpretation of the beat of an ambiguous drum rhythm. Experiment 3 and a subsequent exploratory study show an ability to synchronize movement to the beat of popular dance music and potential for improvement when give…
Music perception and cognition: development, neural basis, and rehabilitative use of music.
2013
Music is a highly versatile form of art and communication that has been an essential part of human society since its early days. Neuroimaging studies indicate that music is a powerful stimulus also for the human brain, engaging not just the auditory cortex but also a vast, bilateral network of temporal, frontal, parietal, cerebellar, and limbic brain areas that govern auditory perception, syntactic and semantic processing, attention and memory, emotion and mood control, and motor skills. Studies of amusia, a severe form of musical impairment, highlight the right temporal and frontal cortices as the core neural substrates for adequate perception and production of music. Many of the basic aud…
Singing as a form of vocal imitation - Mechanisms and deficits
2009
There has been a recent upsurge of interest in the neural and cognitive bases of inaccurate singing, commonly referred to as “tone deafness.” Explanations of this deficit have commonly focused on perceptual and motor functions. It is clear, however, that neither of these mechanisms can fully account for deficits in singing. We summarize the results of several studies concerning inaccurate, or “poor pitch” singing. Taken together, the results of these studies argue that the basis for singing-related deficits lies in the link between perception and action, rather than strictly motoric or perceptual factors. Moreover, singing deficits may involve general purpose vocal imitation mechanisms, rat…