Early childhood music education and predisposition to absolute pitch: teasing apart genes and environment

Absolute pitch among students in an American music conservatory: association with tone language fluency

Absolute pitch (AP), the ability to name a musical note in the absence of a reference note, is extremely rare in the U.S. and Europe, and its genesis is unclear. The prevalence of AP was examined among students in an American music conservatory as a function of age of onset of musical training, ethnicity, and fluency in speaking a tone language. Taking those of East Asian ethnicity, the performance level on a test of AP was significantly higher among those who spoke a tone language very fluently compared with those who spoke a tone language fairly fluently and also compared with those who were not fluent in speaking a tone language. The performance level of this last group did not differ significantly from that of Caucasian students who spoke only nontone language. Early onset of musical training was associated with enhanced performance, but this did not interact with the effect of language. Further analyses showed that the results could not be explained by country of early music education. The findings support the hypothesis that the acquisition of AP by tone language speakers involves the same process as occurs in the acquisition of a second tone language.

The neurocognitive components of pitch processing: insights from absolute pitch

The natural variability of pitch naming ability in the population (known as absolute pitch or AP) provides an ideal method for investigating individual differences in pitch processing and auditory knowledge formation and representation. We have demonstrated the involvement of different cognitive processes in AP ability that reflects varying skill expertise in the presence of similar early age of onset of music tuition. These processes were related to different regions of brain activity, including those involved in pitch working memory (right prefrontal cortex) and the long-term representation of pitch (superior temporal gyrus). They reflected expertise through the use of context dependent pitch cues and the level of automaticity of pitch naming. They impart functional significance to structural asymmetry differences in the planum temporale of musicians and establish a neurobiological basis for an AP template. More generally, they indicate variability of knowledge representation in the presence of environmental fostering of early cognitive development that translates to differences in cognitive ability.

The neural networks involved in pitch labeling of absolute pitch musicians

Investigating the neural substrates of auditory processing of absolute pitch musicians has relevance for understanding the capabilities of the human brain for plasticity. Electroencephalography was used to examine the N1 of auditory-evoked potentials from absolute pitch musicians, nonabsolute pitch musicians, and nonmusicians during tone labeling tasks with and without presentation of a reference tone. Source localization using low-resolution electromagnetic tomography revealed that when labeling tones without a reference, absolute pitch musicians generated greater activity than nonabsolute pitch musicians in the left and right hemispheres. This suggests that when required to label tones without an external reference, absolute pitch musicians have the ability to recruit a greater network than nonabsolute pitch musicians or nonmusicians.

The genetics of congenital amusia (tone deafness): a family-aggregation study

Congenital amusia (commonly known as "tone deafness") is a lifelong impairment of music perception that affects 4% of the population. To estimate whether congenital amusia can be genetically transmitted, its prevalence was quantified by direct auditory testing of 71 members of 9 large families of amusic probands, as well as of 75 members of 10 control families. The results confirm that congenital amusia is expressed by a deficit in processing musical pitch but not musical time and also show that the pitch disorder has a hereditary component. In amusic families, 39% of first-degree relatives have the same cognitive disorder, whereas only 3% have it in the control families. The identification of multiplex families with a high relative risk of experiencing a musical pitch deficit ( lambda(s)=10.8; 95% confidence interval 8-13.5) enables the mapping of genetic loci for hereditary amusia.

Neural correlates of absolute pitch differ between blind and sighted musicians

Several reports have indicated a higher incidence of absolute pitch in blind than in sighted musicians. Employing a pitch memory task, we examined whether a blind absolute pitch musician would rely on different neural correlates than a group of sighted absolute pitch musicians. The blind musician showed significantly more activation of bihemispheric visual association areas, lingual gyrus, parietal and frontal areas than the sighted musicians. Sighted musicians showed more activation of the right primary auditory cortex and the cerebellum when compared with the blind musician. These differences in the activation pattern suggest the use of a different neural network including visual association areas while performing pitch categorization and identification in this blind musician in comparison with sighted musicians.

“Scientific roots” of dualism in neuroscience

Although the dualistic concept is unpopular among neuroscientists involved in experimental studies of the brain, neurophysiological literature is full of covert dualistic statements on the possibility of understanding neural mechanisms of human consciousness. Particularly, the covert dualistic attitude is exhibited in the unwillingness to discuss neural mechanisms of consciousness, leaving the problem of consciousness to psychologists and philosophers. This covert dualism seems to be rooted in the main paradigm of neuroscience that suggests that cognitive functions, such as language production and comprehension, face recognition, declarative memory, emotions, etc., are performed by neural networks consisting of simple elements. I argue that neural networks of any complexity consisting of neurons whose function is limited to the generation of electrical potentials and the transmission of signals to other neurons are hardly capable of producing human mental activity, including consciousness. Based on results obtained in physiological, morphological, clinical, and genetic studies of cognitive functions (mainly linguistic ones), I advocate the hypothesis that the performance of cognitive functions is based on complex cooperative activity of "complex" neurons that are carriers of "elementary cognition." The uniqueness of human cognitive functions, which has a genetic basis, is determined by the specificity of genes expressed by these "complex" neurons. The main goal of the review is to show that the identification of the genes implicated in cognitive functions and the understanding of a functional role of their products is a possible way to overcome covert dualism in neuroscience.

Increased right auditory cortex activity in absolute pitch possessors

We recorded the auditory-evoked magnetic fields from children and adults with absolute pitch during the following tasks: (1) hearing 1000 Hz pure tones inattentively, (2) hearing eight random tones inattentively and (3) listening to eight random tones and identifying each tone. In children with absolute pitch, there was no significant positive correlation between the appearance rate of N100m and the kinds of tasks. In adults with absolute pitch, only the right N100m dipole moments increased significantly in tasks (1) and (2). The present results suggest that the circuit for labeling in the right auditory cortex may lose a function from childhood to adulthood, which reveals neuroplasticity in the development of absolute pitch ability.

Absolute pitch among American and Chinese conservatory students: prevalence differences, and evidence for a speech-related critical period

Absolute pitch is extremely rare in the U.S. and Europe; this rarity has so far been unexplained. This paper reports a substantial difference in the prevalence of absolute pitch in two normal populations, in a large-scale study employing an on-site test, without self-selection from within the target populations. Music conservatory students in the U.S. and China were tested. The Chinese subjects spoke the tone language Mandarin, in which pitch is involved in conveying the meaning of words. The American subjects were nontone language speakers. The earlier the age of onset of musical training, the greater the prevalence of absolute pitch; however, its prevalence was far greater among the Chinese than the U.S. students for each level of age of onset of musical training. The findings suggest that the potential for acquiring absolute pitch may be universal, and may be realized by enabling infants to associate pitches with verbal labels during the critical period for acquisition of features of their native language.

Absolute pitch: music and beyond

"Perfect pitch," known in the scientific literature as "absolute pitch" (AP), is a rare phenomenon that has fascinated musicians and scientists alike for over a century. There has been a great deal of conflict in the literature between advocates of the two main theories on the etiology of AP: some believe that AP is learned early in life through intensive musical training, whereas others believe AP to be largely innate. Both theories are alike, however, in considering AP to be exclusively a musical phenomenon. We propose a paradigm shift by presenting here a new model of AP, one that is predicated on two principles: (1) that AP may be relatively independent of musical experience; and (2) that there are different types of AP, each of which can be ascribed to discrete neurobiological mechanisms. We also review data from a diverse series of experiments that were designed to test explicitly both the predictions of our model and a series of historical myths about AP. In each case, the data strongly support our model. We conclude with a general discussion on the nature of AP, the relevance of these findings for other areas of research, and future directions of study.

AVPR1a and SLC6A4 gene polymorphisms are associated with creative dance performance

Dancing, which is integrally related to music, likely has its origins close to the birth of Homo sapiens, and throughout our history, dancing has been universally practiced in all societies. We hypothesized that there are differences among individuals in aptitude, propensity, and need for dancing that may partially be based on differences in common genetic polymorphisms. Identifying such differences may lead to an understanding of the neurobiological basis of one of mankind's most universal and appealing behavioral traits--dancing. In the current study, 85 current performing dancers and their parents were genotyped for the serotonin transporter (SLC6A4: promoter region HTTLPR and intron 2 VNTR) and the arginine vasopressin receptor 1a (AVPR1a: promoter microsatellites RS1 and RS3). We also genotyped 91 competitive athletes and a group of nondancers/nonathletes (n = 872 subjects from 414 families). Dancers scored higher on the Tellegen Absorption Scale, a questionnaire that correlates positively with spirituality and altered states of consciousness, as well as the Reward Dependence factor in Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, a measure of need for social contact and openness to communication. Highly significant differences in AVPR1a haplotype frequencies (RS1 and RS3), especially when conditional on both SLC6A4 polymorphisms (HTTLPR and VNTR), were observed between dancers and athletes using the UNPHASED program package (Cocaphase: likelihood ratio test [LRS] = 89.23, p = 0.000044). Similar results were obtained when dancers were compared to nondancers/nonathletes (Cocaphase: LRS = 92.76, p = 0.000024). These results were confirmed using a robust family-based test (Tdtphase: LRS = 46.64, p = 0.010). Association was also observed between Tellegen Absorption Scale scores and AVPR1a (Qtdtphase: global chi-square = 26.53, p = 0.047), SLC6A4 haplotypes (Qtdtphase: chi-square = 2.363, p = 0.018), and AVPR1a conditional on SCL6A4 (Tdtphase: LRS = 250.44, p = 0.011). Similarly, significant association was observed between Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire Reward Dependence scores and AVPR1a RS1 (chi-square = 20.16, p = 0.01). Two-locus analysis (RS1 and RS3 conditional on HTTLPR and VNTR) was highly significant (LRS = 162.95, p = 0.001). Promoter repeat regions in the AVPR1a gene have been robustly demonstrated to play a role in molding a range of social behaviors in many vertebrates and, more recently, in humans. Additionally, serotonergic neurotransmission in some human studies appears to mediate human religious and spiritual experiences. We therefore hypothesize that the association between AVPR1a and SLC6A4 reflects the social communication, courtship, and spiritual facets of the dancing phenotype rather than other aspects of this complex phenotype, such as sensorimotor integration.

Brain organization for music processing

Research on how the brain processes music is emerging as a rich and stimulating area of investigation of perception, memory, emotion, and performance. Results emanating from both lesion studies and neuroimaging techniques are reviewed and integrated for each of these musical functions. We focus our attention on the common core of musical abilities shared by musicians and nonmusicians alike. Hence, the effect of musical training on brain plasticity is examined in a separate section, after a review of the available data regarding music playing and reading skills that are typically cultivated by musicians. Finally, we address a currently debated issue regarding the putative existence of music-specific neural networks. Unfortunately, due to scarcity of research on the macrostructure of music organization and on cultural differences, the musical material under focus is at the level of the musical phrase, as typically used in Western popular music.

A nonmusical paradigm for identifying absolute pitch possessors

The ability to identify and reproduce sounds of specific frequencies is remarkable and uncommon. The etiology and defining characteristics of this skill, absolute pitch (AP), have been very controversial. One theory suggests that AP requires a specific type of early musical training and that the ability to encode and remember tones depends on these learned musical associations. An alternate theory argues that AP may be strongly dependent on hereditary factors and relatively independent of musical experience. To date, it has been difficult to test these hypotheses because all previous paradigms for identifying AP have required subjects to employ knowledge of musical nomenclature. As such, these tests are insensitive to the possibility of discovering AP in either nonmusicians or musicians of non-Western training. Based on previous literature in pitch memory, a paradigm is presented that is intended to distinguish between AP possessors and nonpossessors independent of the subjects' musical experience. The efficacy of this method is then tested with 20 classically defined AP possessors and 22 nonpossessors. Data from these groups strongly support the validity of the paradigm. The use of a nonmusical paradigm to identify AP may facilitate research into many aspects of this phenomenon.

N100m in adults possessing absolute pitch

We recorded the auditory evoked magnetic fields from adults with and without absolute pitch under the following conditions: hearing 1000 Hz pure tones inattentively (single tone session) and listening to eight random tones and identifying each tone (labeling session). In the adults with absolute pitch, the bilateral N100m dipole moments increased significantly in the labeling session. While, in the adults without absolute pitch, the left N100m dipole moment alone increased in the labeling session. These results suggest that the adults with absolute pitch execute the labeling task in the bilateral auditory cortices with interhemispheric cooperation, which does not operate in the adults without absolute pitch.

Absolute pitch does not depend on early musical training

The etiology and defining characteristics of absolute pitch (AP) have been controversial. To test the importance of musical training in the development of this skill, we developed a new paradigm for identifying AP that is independent of a subject's musical experience. We confirm the efficacy of the paradigm using classically defined AP and non-AP musicians. We then present data from a nonmusician who nevertheless appears to possess AP. We conclude that musical training is not necessary for the development of AP.

Absolute pitch: a model for understanding the influence of genes and development on neural and cognitive function

Absolute pitch (AP), the ability to identify or produce the pitch of a sound without any reference point, is discussed here as a possible model system for understanding the neurobiology of complex cognitive functions. AP is of interest because it may reflect an atypical organization of sensory representations. Indications are that it depends on both genetic factors and exposure to musical training during childhood, supporting the idea of a sensitive period. Functional and structural neuroimaging studies suggest special roles for working memory and associative memory mechanisms in AP, and results from these studies indicate that there may be structural markers of AP in asymmetries of cortical areas. AP seems to depend on the nervous system's response to experiential, maturational and genetic factors, making it a good candidate model for understanding how these interactions play out in cognitive development generally.

N100m in children possessing absolute pitch

We recorded the auditory evoked magnetic fields from children with and without absolute pitch under the following conditions: (a) hearing 1000 Hz pure tones inattentively, (b) hearing eight random tones inattentively and (c) listening to eight random tones and identifying each tone. We calculated the appearance rate of N100m as the ratio of the subjects who had N100m. There was a significant positive correlation between the appearance rate of N100m and age in both groups. There was also a significant positive correlation between the appearance rate of N100m and the kinds of the task only in children without absolute pitch. These results suggest that, in the children with absolute pitch, N100m was elicited equally in every session because of their automatically driven auditory attention. No significant correlation was found between the appearance rate of N100m and the possession of absolute pitch.

People with absolute pitch process tones with producing P300

We recorded a P300 component of event-related potentials associated with auditory oddball tasks in nine absolute pitch (AP) possessors and seven non-AP possessors. The previous studies demonstrated that AP possessors did not appear to employ working memory during auditory oddball tasks because they have a fixed tonal template in their memories. However, the present findings showed that the AP possessors exhibited similar P300 as the non-AP possessors and did update the tonal context in the auditory oddball tasks. This result suggests that the AP possessors do not always refer to the fixed tonal template in their memories when executing the oddball tasks and they employ working memory properly according to the difficulty of the auditory tasks.