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Hoarau C, Pralus A, Moulin A, Bedoin N, Ginzburg J, Fornoni L, Aguera PE, Tillmann B, Caclin A. Deficits in congenital amusia: Pitch, music, speech, and beyond. Neuropsychologia 2024; 202:108960. [PMID: 39032629 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108960] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2024] [Revised: 07/17/2024] [Accepted: 07/17/2024] [Indexed: 07/23/2024]
Abstract
Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits of music perception and production, which are related to altered pitch processing. The present study used a wide variety of tasks to test potential patterns of processing impairment in individuals with congenital amusia (N = 18) in comparison to matched controls (N = 19), notably classical pitch processing tests (i.e., pitch change detection, pitch direction of change identification, and pitch short-term memory tasks) together with tasks assessing other aspects of pitch-related auditory cognition, such as emotion recognition in speech, sound segregation in tone sequences, and speech-in-noise perception. Additional behavioral measures were also collected, including text reading/copying tests, visual control tasks, and a subjective assessment of hearing abilities. As expected, amusics' performance was impaired for the three pitch-specific tasks compared to controls. This deficit of pitch perception had a self-perceived impact on amusics' quality of hearing. Moreover, participants with amusia were impaired in emotion recognition in vowels compared to controls, but no group difference was observed for emotion recognition in sentences, replicating previous data. Despite pitch processing deficits, participants with amusia did not differ from controls in sound segregation and speech-in-noise perception. Text reading and visual control tests did not reveal any impairments in participants with amusia compared to controls. However, the copying test revealed more numerous eye-movements and a smaller memory span. These results allow us to refine the pattern of pitch processing and memory deficits in congenital amusia, thus contributing further to understand pitch-related auditory cognition. Together with previous reports suggesting a comorbidity between congenital amusia and dyslexia, the findings call for further investigation of language-related abilities in this disorder even in the absence of neurodevelopmental language disorder diagnosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caliani Hoarau
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, F-69500, Bron, France; Humans Matter, Lyon, France.
| | - Agathe Pralus
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, F-69500, Bron, France; Humans Matter, Lyon, France
| | - Annie Moulin
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Nathalie Bedoin
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, F-69500, Bron, France; Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, France
| | - Jérémie Ginzburg
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Lesly Fornoni
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Pierre-Emmanuel Aguera
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, F-69500, Bron, France; Laboratory for Research on Learning and Development, Université de Bourgogne, LEAD-CNRS UMR5022, Dijon, France
| | - Anne Caclin
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, F-69500, Bron, France
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Couvignou M, Tillmann B, Caclin A, Kolinsky R. Do developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia share underlying impairments? Child Neuropsychol 2023; 29:1294-1340. [PMID: 36606656 DOI: 10.1080/09297049.2022.2162031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia have common characteristics. Yet, their possible association in some individuals has been addressed only scarcely. Recently, two converging studies reported a sizable comorbidity rate between these two neurodevelopmental disorders (Couvignou et al., Cognitive Neuropsychology 2019; Couvignou & Kolinsky, Neuropsychologia 2021). However, the reason for their association remains unclear. Here, we investigate the hypothesis of shared underlying impairments between dyslexia and amusia. Fifteen dyslexic children with amusia (DYS+A), 15 dyslexic children without amusia (DYS-A), and two groups of 25 typically developing children matched on either chronological age (CA) or reading level (RL) were assessed with a behavioral battery aiming to investigate phonological and pitch processing capacities at auditory memory, perceptual awareness, and attentional levels. Overall, our results suggest that poor auditory serial-order memory increases susceptibility to comorbidity between dyslexia and amusia and may play a role in the development of the comorbid phenotype. In contrast, the impairments observed in the DYS+A children for auditory item memory, perceptual awareness, and attention might be a consequence of their reduced reading experience combined with weaker musical skills. Comparing DYS+A and DYS-A children suggests that the latter are more resourceful and/or have more effective compensatory strategies, or that their phenotype results from a different developmental trajectory. We will discuss the relevance of these findings for delving into the etiology of these two developmental disorders and address their implications for future research and practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manon Couvignou
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, Lyon, France
- University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Anne Caclin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, Lyon, France
- University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Régine Kolinsky
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS (FRS-FNRS), Brussels, Belgium
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3
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Tillmann B, Graves JE, Talamini F, Lévêque Y, Fornoni L, Hoarau C, Pralus A, Ginzburg J, Albouy P, Caclin A. Auditory cortex and beyond: Deficits in congenital amusia. Hear Res 2023; 437:108855. [PMID: 37572645 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2023.108855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/04/2023] [Revised: 06/14/2023] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 08/14/2023]
Abstract
Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of music perception and production, with the observed deficits contrasting with the sophisticated music processing reported for the general population. Musical deficits within amusia have been hypothesized to arise from altered pitch processing, with impairments in pitch discrimination and, notably, short-term memory. We here review research investigating its behavioral and neural correlates, in particular the impairments at encoding, retention, and recollection of pitch information, as well as how these impairments extend to the processing of pitch cues in speech and emotion. The impairments have been related to altered brain responses in a distributed fronto-temporal network, which can be observed also at rest. Neuroimaging studies revealed changes in connectivity patterns within this network and beyond, shedding light on the brain dynamics underlying auditory cognition. Interestingly, some studies revealed spared implicit pitch processing in congenital amusia, showing the power of implicit cognition in the music domain. Building on these findings, together with audiovisual integration and other beneficial mechanisms, we outline perspectives for training and rehabilitation and the future directions of this research domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara Tillmann
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France; Laboratory for Research on Learning and Development, Université de Bourgogne, LEAD - CNRS UMR5022, Dijon, France; LEAD-CNRS UMR5022; Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté; Pôle AAFE; 11 Esplanade Erasme; 21000 Dijon, France.
| | - Jackson E Graves
- Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, Département d'études cognitives, École normale supérieure, PSL University, Paris 75005, France
| | | | - Yohana Lévêque
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Lesly Fornoni
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Caliani Hoarau
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Agathe Pralus
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Jérémie Ginzburg
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France
| | - Philippe Albouy
- CERVO Brain Research Center, School of Psychology, Laval University, Québec, G1J 2G3; International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), CRBLM, Montreal QC, H2V 2J2, Canada
| | - Anne Caclin
- CNRS, INSERM, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5292, U1028, F-69500, Bron, France.
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Quiroga‐Martinez DR, Basiński K, Nasielski J, Tillmann B, Brattico E, Cholvy F, Fornoni L, Vuust P, Caclin A. Enhanced mismatch negativity in harmonic compared with inharmonic sounds. Eur J Neurosci 2022; 56:4583-4599. [PMID: 35833941 PMCID: PMC9543822 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15769] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2022] [Revised: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 07/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Many natural sounds have frequency spectra composed of integer multiples of a fundamental frequency. This property, known as harmonicity, plays an important role in auditory information processing. However, the extent to which harmonicity influences the processing of sound features beyond pitch is still unclear. This is interesting because harmonic sounds have lower information entropy than inharmonic sounds. According to predictive processing accounts of perception, this property could produce more salient neural responses due to the brain's weighting of sensory signals according to their uncertainty. In the present study, we used electroencephalography to investigate brain responses to harmonic and inharmonic sounds commonly occurring in music: Piano tones and hi-hat cymbal sounds. In a multifeature oddball paradigm, we measured mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a responses to timbre, intensity, and location deviants in listeners with and without congenital amusia-an impairment of pitch processing. As hypothesized, we observed larger amplitudes and earlier latencies (for both MMN and P3a) in harmonic compared with inharmonic sounds. These harmonicity effects were modulated by sound feature. Moreover, the difference in P3a latency between harmonic and inharmonic sounds was larger for controls than amusics. We propose an explanation of these results based on predictive coding and discuss the relationship between harmonicity, information entropy, and precision weighting of prediction errors.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Ricardo Quiroga‐Martinez
- Helen Wills Neuroscience InstituteUniversity of California BerkeleyBerkeleyCAUSA
- Center for Music in the BrainAarhus University & The Royal Academy of MusicAarhusDenmark
| | - Krzysztof Basiński
- Division of Quality of Life Research, Faculty of Health SciencesMedical University of GdańskGdańskPoland
| | | | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research CenterCNRS, UMR5292; INSERM, U1028LyonFrance
- University Lyon 1LyonFrance
| | - Elvira Brattico
- Center for Music in the BrainAarhus University & The Royal Academy of MusicAarhusDenmark
- Department of Educational Sciences, Psychology and CommunicationUniversity of Bari Aldo MoroBariItaly
| | - Fanny Cholvy
- Lyon Neuroscience Research CenterCNRS, UMR5292; INSERM, U1028LyonFrance
- University Lyon 1LyonFrance
| | - Lesly Fornoni
- Lyon Neuroscience Research CenterCNRS, UMR5292; INSERM, U1028LyonFrance
- University Lyon 1LyonFrance
| | - Peter Vuust
- Center for Music in the BrainAarhus University & The Royal Academy of MusicAarhusDenmark
| | - Anne Caclin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research CenterCNRS, UMR5292; INSERM, U1028LyonFrance
- University Lyon 1LyonFrance
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5
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Tonal structures benefit short-term memory for real music: Evidence from non-musicians and individuals with congenital amusia. Brain Cogn 2022; 161:105881. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2022.105881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2021] [Revised: 05/23/2022] [Accepted: 05/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Anderson KS, Gosselin N, Sadikot AF, Laguë-Beauvais M, Kang ESH, Fogarty AE, Marcoux J, Dagher J, de Guise E. Pitch and Rhythm Perception and Verbal Short-Term Memory in Acute Traumatic Brain Injury. Brain Sci 2021; 11:1173. [PMID: 34573194 PMCID: PMC8469559 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11091173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2021] [Revised: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Music perception deficits are common following acquired brain injury due to stroke, epilepsy surgeries, and aneurysmal clipping. Few studies have examined these deficits following traumatic brain injury (TBI), resulting in an under-diagnosis in this population. We aimed to (1) compare TBI patients to controls on pitch and rhythm perception during the acute phase; (2) determine whether pitch and rhythm perception disorders co-occur; (3) examine lateralization of injury in the context of pitch and rhythm perception; and (4) determine the relationship between verbal short-term memory (STM) and pitch and rhythm perception. Music perception was examined using the Scale and Rhythm tests of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, in association with CT scans to identify lesion laterality. Verbal short-term memory was examined using Digit Span Forward. TBI patients had greater impairment than controls, with 43% demonstrating deficits in pitch perception, and 40% in rhythm perception. Deficits were greater with right hemisphere damage than left. Pitch and rhythm deficits co-occurred 31% of the time, suggesting partly dissociable networks. There was a dissociation between performance on verbal STM and pitch and rhythm perception 39 to 42% of the time (respectively), with most individuals (92%) demonstrating intact verbal STM, with impaired pitch or rhythm perception. The clinical implications of music perception deficits following TBI are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirsten S Anderson
- Psychology Department, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC H2V 2S9, Canada
- Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Réadaptation du Montréal Métropolitain (CRIR), Montreal, QC H3S 1M9, Canada
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), and Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC H2V2S9, Canada
| | - Nathalie Gosselin
- Psychology Department, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC H2V 2S9, Canada
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), and Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC H2V2S9, Canada
| | - Abbas F Sadikot
- Neurology and Neurosurgery Department, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
| | - Maude Laguë-Beauvais
- Neurology and Neurosurgery Department, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
- Traumatic Brain Injury Program, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H3G 1A4, Canada
| | - Esther S H Kang
- Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3G 2M1, Canada
| | - Alexandra E Fogarty
- Department of Neurology, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
| | - Judith Marcoux
- Neurology and Neurosurgery Department, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
- Traumatic Brain Injury Program, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H3G 1A4, Canada
| | - Jehane Dagher
- Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Réadaptation du Montréal Métropolitain (CRIR), Montreal, QC H3S 1M9, Canada
- Traumatic Brain Injury Program, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H3G 1A4, Canada
| | - Elaine de Guise
- Psychology Department, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC H2V 2S9, Canada
- Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Réadaptation du Montréal Métropolitain (CRIR), Montreal, QC H3S 1M9, Canada
- Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC H4A 3J1, Canada
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7
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Listeners with congenital amusia are sensitive to context uncertainty in melodic sequences. Neuropsychologia 2021; 158:107911. [PMID: 34102187 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107911] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2020] [Revised: 05/26/2021] [Accepted: 06/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
In typical listeners, the perceptual salience of a surprising auditory event depends on the uncertainty of its context. For example, in melodies, pitch deviants are more easily detected and generate larger neural responses when the context is highly predictable than when it is less so. However, it is not known whether amusic listeners with abnormal pitch processing are sensitive to the degree of uncertainty of pitch sequences and, if so, whether they are to a different extent than typical non-musician listeners. To answer this question, we manipulated the uncertainty of short melodies while participants with and without congenital amusia underwent EEG recordings in a passive listening task. Uncertainty was manipulated by presenting melodies with different levels of complexity and familiarity, under the assumption that simpler and more familiar patterns would enhance pitch predictability. We recorded mismatch negativity (MMN) responses to pitch, intensity, timbre, location, and rhythm deviants as a measure of auditory surprise. In both participant groups, we observed reduced MMN amplitudes and longer peak latencies for all sound features with increasing levels of complexity, and putative familiarity effects only for intensity deviants. No significant group-by-complexity or group-by-familiarity interactions were detected. However, in contrast to previous studies, pitch MMN responses in amusics were disrupted in high complexity and unfamiliar melodies. The present results thus indicate that amusics are sensitive to the uncertainty of melodic sequences and that preattentive auditory change detection is greatly spared in this population across sound features and levels of predictability. However, our findings also hint at pitch-specific impairments in this population when uncertainty is high, thus suggesting that pitch processing under high uncertainty conditions requires an intact frontotemporal loop.
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8
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Tao W, Huang H, Haponenko H, Sun HJ. Face recognition and memory in congenital amusia. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0225519. [PMID: 31790454 PMCID: PMC6886812 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2019] [Accepted: 11/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Congenital amusia, commonly known as tone deafness, is a lifelong impairment of music perception and production. It remains a question of debate whether the impairments in musical domain observed in congenital amusia are paralleled in other non-musical perceptual abilities. Using behavioral measures in two experiments, the current study explored face perception and memory in congenital amusics. Both congenital amusics and matched controls performed a face perception task (Experiment 1) and an old/novel object memory task (for both faces and houses, Experiment 2). The results showed that the congenital amusic group had significantly slower reaction times than that in matched control group when identifying whether two faces presented together were the same or different. For different face-pairs, the deficit was greater for upright faces compared with inverted faces. For object memory task, the congenital amusic group also showed worse memory performance than the control group. The results of the present study suggest that the impairment attributed to congenital amusia is not only limited to music, but also extends to visual perception and visual memory domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weidong Tao
- Department of Psychology, School of Teacher Education, Huzhou Normal University, Huzhou, Zhejiang, China
- * E-mail:
| | - Huayan Huang
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Lingnan Normal University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China
| | - Hanna Haponenko
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamiliton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Hong-jin Sun
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamiliton, Ontario, Canada
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Graves JE, Pralus A, Fornoni L, Oxenham AJ, Caclin A, Tillmann B. Short- and long-term memory for pitch and non-pitch contours: Insights from congenital amusia. Brain Cogn 2019; 136:103614. [PMID: 31546175 PMCID: PMC6953621 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2019.103614] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2019] [Revised: 09/11/2019] [Accepted: 09/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in music perception, including discriminating and remembering melodies and melodic contours. As non-amusic listeners can perceive contours in dimensions other than pitch, such as loudness and brightness, our present study investigated whether amusics' pitch contour deficits also extend to these other auditory dimensions. Amusic and control participants performed an identification task for ten familiar melodies and a short-term memory task requiring the discrimination of changes in the contour of novel four-tone melodies. For both tasks, melodic contour was defined by pitch, brightness, or loudness. Amusic participants showed some ability to extract contours in all three dimensions. For familiar melodies, amusic participants showed impairment in all conditions, perhaps reflecting the fact that the long-term memory representations of the familiar melodies were defined in pitch. In the contour discrimination task with novel melodies, amusic participants exhibited less impairment for loudness-based melodies than for pitch- or brightness-based melodies, suggesting some specificity of the deficit for spectral changes, if not for pitch alone. The results suggest pitch and brightness may not be processed by the same mechanisms as loudness, and that short-term memory for loudness contours may be spared to some degree in congenital amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jackson E Graves
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), CNRS, UMR 5292, Inserm U1028, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Laboratoire des systèmes perceptifs, Département d'études cognitives, École normale supérieure, PSL University, CNRS, 75005 Paris, France.
| | - Agathe Pralus
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), CNRS, UMR 5292, Inserm U1028, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Lesly Fornoni
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), CNRS, UMR 5292, Inserm U1028, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Andrew J Oxenham
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Anne Caclin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), CNRS, UMR 5292, Inserm U1028, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), CNRS, UMR 5292, Inserm U1028, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France
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Couvignou M, Peretz I, Ramus F. Comorbidity and cognitive overlap between developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia. Cogn Neuropsychol 2019; 36:1-17. [DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2019.1578205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Manon Couvignou
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives, Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences, Faculté des Sciences Psychologiques et de l'Éducation, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Psychology, International Laboratory of Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada
- Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Isabelle Peretz
- Department of Psychology, International Laboratory of Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada
| | - Franck Ramus
- Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France
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Abstract
The Montreal Battery for the Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA; Peretz, Champod, & Hyde Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 999, 58-75, 2003) is an empirically grounded quantitative tool that is widely used to identify individuals with congenital amusia. The use of such a standardized measure ensures that the individuals tested will conform to a specific neuropsychological profile, allowing for comparisons across studies and research groups. Recently, a number of researchers have published credible critiques of the usefulness of the MBEA as a diagnostic tool for amusia. Here we argue that the MBEA and its online counterpart, the AMUSIA tests (Peretz et al. Music Perception, 25, 331-343, 2008), should be considered steps in a screening process for amusia, rather than standalone diagnostic tools. The goal of this article is to present, in detailed and easily replicable format, the full protocol through which congenital amusics should be identified. In providing information that has often gone unreported in published articles, we aim to clarify the strengths and limitations of the MBEA and to make recommendations for its continued use by the research community as part of the Montreal Protocol for Identification of Amusia.
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12
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Ability to process musical pitch is unrelated to the memory advantage for vocal music. Brain Cogn 2019; 129:35-39. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2018.11.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2018] [Revised: 11/26/2018] [Accepted: 11/27/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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13
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Caclin A, Tillmann B. Musical and verbal short-term memory: insights from neurodevelopmental and neurological disorders. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2018; 1423:155-165. [PMID: 29744897 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.13733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2017] [Revised: 03/17/2018] [Accepted: 03/22/2018] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Auditory short-term memory (STM) is a fundamental ability to make sense of auditory information as it unfolds over time. Whether separate STM systems exist for different types of auditory information (music and speech, in particular) is a matter of debate. The present paper reviews studies that have investigated both musical and verbal STM in healthy individuals and in participants with neurodevelopmental and neurological disorders. Overall, the results are in favor of only partly shared networks for musical and verbal STM. Evidence for a distinction in STM for the two materials stems from (1) behavioral studies in healthy participants, in particular from the comparison between nonmusicians and musicians; (2) behavioral studies in congenital amusia, where a selective pitch STM deficit is observed; and (3) studies in brain-damaged patients with cases of double dissociation. In this review we highlight the need for future studies comparing STM for the same perceptual dimension (e.g., pitch) in different materials (e.g., music and speech), as well as for studies aiming at a more insightful characterization of shared and distinct mechanisms for speech and music in the different components of STM, namely encoding, retention, and retrieval.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Caclin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team (DYCOG) and Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics Team, INSERM, U1028, CNRS, UMR5292, Lyon, France
- Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team (DYCOG) and Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics Team, INSERM, U1028, CNRS, UMR5292, Lyon, France
- Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France
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14
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Tracting the neural basis of music: Deficient structural connectivity underlying acquired amusia. Cortex 2017; 97:255-273. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.09.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2017] [Revised: 06/08/2017] [Accepted: 09/29/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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15
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Jiang C, Liu F, Wong PCM. Sensitivity to musical emotion is influenced by tonal structure in congenital amusia. Sci Rep 2017; 7:7624. [PMID: 28790442 PMCID: PMC5548738 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-08005-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2016] [Accepted: 07/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Emotional communication in music depends on multiple attributes including psychoacoustic features and tonal system information, the latter of which is unique to music. The present study investigated whether congenital amusia, a lifelong disorder of musical processing, impacts sensitivity to musical emotion elicited by timbre and tonal system information. Twenty-six amusics and 26 matched controls made tension judgments on Western (familiar) and Indian (unfamiliar) melodies played on piano and sitar. Like controls, amusics used timbre cues to judge musical tension in Western and Indian melodies. While controls assigned significantly lower tension ratings to Western melodies compared to Indian melodies, thus showing a tonal familiarity effect on tension ratings, amusics provided comparable tension ratings for Western and Indian melodies on both timbres. Furthermore, amusics rated Western melodies as more tense compared to controls, as they relied less on tonality cues than controls in rating tension for Western melodies. The implications of these findings in terms of emotional responses to music are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cunmei Jiang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China. .,Institute of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China.
| | - Fang Liu
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Patrick C M Wong
- Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages and Brain and Mind Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. .,The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Utrecth University Joint Center for Language, Mind and Brain, Hong Kong, China.
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16
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Sihvonen AJ, Ripollés P, Rodríguez-Fornells A, Soinila S, Särkämö T. Revisiting the Neural Basis of Acquired Amusia: Lesion Patterns and Structural Changes Underlying Amusia Recovery. Front Neurosci 2017; 11:426. [PMID: 28790885 PMCID: PMC5524924 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00426] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2017] [Accepted: 07/11/2017] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Although, acquired amusia is a common deficit following stroke, relatively little is still known about its precise neural basis, let alone to its recovery. Recently, we performed a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) and morphometry (VBM) study which revealed a right lateralized lesion pattern, and longitudinal gray matter volume (GMV) and white matter volume (WMV) changes that were specifically associated with acquired amusia after stroke. In the present study, using a larger sample of stroke patients (N = 90), we aimed to replicate and extend the previous structural findings as well as to determine the lesion patterns and volumetric changes associated with amusia recovery. Structural MRIs were acquired at acute and 6-month post-stroke stages. Music perception was behaviorally assessed at acute and 3-month post-stroke stages using the Scale and Rhythm subtests of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA). Using these scores, the patients were classified as non-amusic, recovered amusic, and non-recovered amusic. The results of the acute stage VLSM analyses and the longitudinal VBM analyses converged to show that more severe and persistent (non-recovered) amusia was associated with an extensive pattern of lesions and GMV/WMV decrease in right temporal, frontal, parietal, striatal, and limbic areas. In contrast, less severe and transient (recovered) amusia was linked to lesions specifically in left inferior frontal gyrus as well as to a GMV decrease in right parietal areas. Separate continuous analyses of MBEA Scale and Rhythm scores showed extensively overlapping lesion pattern in right temporal, frontal, and subcortical structures as well as in the right insula. Interestingly, the recovered pitch amusia was related to smaller GMV decreases in the temporoparietal junction whereas the recovered rhythm amusia was associated to smaller GMV decreases in the inferior temporal pole. Overall, the results provide a more comprehensive picture of the lesions and longitudinal structural changes associated with different recovery trajectories of acquired amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleksi J Sihvonen
- Faculty of Medicine, University of TurkuTurku, Finland.,Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of HelsinkiHelsinki, Finland
| | - Pablo Ripollés
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet de LlobregatBarcelona, Spain.,Department of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, University of BarcelonaBarcelona, Spain.,Poeppel Lab, Department of Psychology, New York UniversityNew York, NY, United States
| | - Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells
- Cognition and Brain Plasticity Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet de LlobregatBarcelona, Spain.,Department of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, University of BarcelonaBarcelona, Spain.,Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA)Barcelona, Spain
| | - Seppo Soinila
- Division of Clinical Neurosciences, Turku University Hospital and Department of Neurology, University of TurkuTurku, Finland
| | - Teppo Särkämö
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of HelsinkiHelsinki, Finland
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17
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Zhang C, Peng G, Shao J, Wang WSY. Neural bases of congenital amusia in tonal language speakers. Neuropsychologia 2017; 97:18-28. [PMID: 28153640 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2016] [Revised: 01/20/2017] [Accepted: 01/30/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Congenital amusia is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder of fine-grained pitch processing. In this fMRI study, we examined the neural bases of congenial amusia in speakers of a tonal language - Cantonese. Previous studies on non-tonal language speakers suggest that the neural deficits of congenital amusia lie in the music-selective neural circuitry in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). However, it is unclear whether this finding can generalize to congenital amusics in tonal languages. Tonal language experience has been reported to shape the neural processing of pitch, which raises the question of how tonal language experience affects the neural bases of congenital amusia. To investigate this question, we examined the neural circuitries sub-serving the processing of relative pitch interval in pitch-matched Cantonese level tone and musical stimuli in 11 Cantonese-speaking amusics and 11 musically intact controls. Cantonese-speaking amusics exhibited abnormal brain activities in a widely distributed neural network during the processing of lexical tone and musical stimuli. Whereas the controls exhibited significant activation in the right superior temporal gyrus (STG) in the lexical tone condition and in the cerebellum regardless of the lexical tone and music conditions, no activation was found in the amusics in those regions, which likely reflects a dysfunctional neural mechanism of relative pitch processing in the amusics. Furthermore, the amusics showed abnormally strong activation of the right middle frontal gyrus and precuneus when the pitch stimuli were repeated, which presumably reflect deficits of attending to repeated pitch stimuli or encoding them into working memory. No significant group difference was found in the right IFG in either the whole-brain analysis or region-of-interest analysis. These findings imply that the neural deficits in tonal language speakers might differ from those in non-tonal language speakers, and overlap partly with the neural circuitries of lexical tone processing (e.g. right STG).
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Affiliation(s)
- Caicai Zhang
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China; Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.
| | - Gang Peng
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China; Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.
| | - Jing Shao
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - William S-Y Wang
- Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China; Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
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18
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Lu X, Sun Y, Thompson WF. An investigation of spatial representation of pitch in individuals with congenital amusia. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2016; 70:1867-1877. [PMID: 27426027 DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1213870] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Spatial representation of pitch plays a central role in auditory processing. However, it is unknown whether impaired auditory processing is associated with impaired pitch-space mapping. Experiment 1 examined spatial representation of pitch in individuals with congenital amusia using a stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) task. For amusic and non-amusic participants, pitch classification was faster and more accurate when correct responses involved a physical action that was spatially congruent with the pitch height of the stimulus than when it was incongruent. However, this spatial representation of pitch was not as stable in amusic individuals, revealed by slower response times when compared with control individuals. One explanation is that the SRC effect in amusics reflects a linguistic association, requiring additional time to link pitch height and spatial location. To test this possibility, Experiment 2 employed a colour-classification task. Participants judged colour while ignoring a concurrent pitch by pressing one of two response keys positioned vertically to be congruent or incongruent with the pitch. The association between pitch and space was found in both groups, with comparable response times in the two groups, suggesting that amusic individuals are only slower to respond to tasks involving explicit judgments of pitch.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuejing Lu
- a Department of Psychology , Macquarie University , Sydney , NSW , Australia.,b ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders , Sydney , NSW , Australia
| | - Yanan Sun
- b ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders , Sydney , NSW , Australia.,c Department of Cognitive Science , Macquarie University , Sydney , NSW , Australia
| | - William Forde Thompson
- a Department of Psychology , Macquarie University , Sydney , NSW , Australia.,b ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders , Sydney , NSW , Australia
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19
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Impaired short-term memory for pitch in congenital amusia. Brain Res 2016; 1640:251-63. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.10.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2015] [Revised: 10/11/2015] [Accepted: 10/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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20
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Discrimination of tonal and atonal music in congenital amusia: The advantage of implicit tasks. Neuropsychologia 2016; 85:10-8. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.02.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2015] [Revised: 02/06/2016] [Accepted: 02/28/2016] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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21
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Lu X, Ho HT, Sun Y, Johnson BW, Thompson WF. The influence of visual information on auditory processing in individuals with congenital amusia: An ERP study. Neuroimage 2016; 135:142-51. [PMID: 27132045 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2016] [Accepted: 04/17/2016] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
While most normal hearing individuals can readily use prosodic information in spoken language to interpret the moods and feelings of conversational partners, people with congenital amusia report that they often rely more on facial expressions and gestures, a strategy that may compensate for deficits in auditory processing. In this investigation, we used EEG to examine the extent to which individuals with congenital amusia draw upon visual information when making auditory or audio-visual judgments. Event-related potentials (ERP) were elicited by a change in pitch (up or down) between two sequential tones paired with a change in spatial position (up or down) between two visually presented dots. The change in dot position was either congruent or incongruent with the change in pitch. Participants were asked to judge (1) the direction of pitch change while ignoring the visual information (AV implicit task), and (2) whether the auditory and visual changes were congruent (AV explicit task). In the AV implicit task, amusic participants performed significantly worse in the incongruent condition than control participants. ERPs showed an enhanced N2-P3 response to incongruent AV pairings for control participants, but not for amusic participants. However when participants were explicitly directed to detect AV congruency, both groups exhibited enhanced N2-P3 responses to incongruent AV pairings. These findings indicate that amusics are capable of extracting information from both modalities in an AV task, but are biased to rely on visual information when it is available, presumably because they have learned that auditory information is unreliable. We conclude that amusic individuals implicitly draw upon visual information when judging auditory information, even though they have the capacity to explicitly recognize conflicts between these two sensory channels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuejing Lu
- Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, NSW, Australia.
| | - Hao T Ho
- Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Yanan Sun
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, NSW, Australia; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Blake W Johnson
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, NSW, Australia; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - William F Thompson
- Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, NSW, Australia
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22
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Nan Y, Huang WT, Wang WJ, Liu C, Dong Q. Subgroup differences in the lexical tone mismatch negativity (MMN) among Mandarin speakers with congenital amusia. Biol Psychol 2016; 113:59-67. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.11.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2015] [Revised: 10/20/2015] [Accepted: 11/24/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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23
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Marin MM, Thompson WF, Gingras B, Stewart L. Affective evaluation of simultaneous tone combinations in congenital amusia. Neuropsychologia 2015; 78:207-20. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.10.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2014] [Revised: 09/27/2015] [Accepted: 10/02/2015] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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24
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25
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Tillmann B, Albouy P, Caclin A, Bigand E. Musical familiarity in congenital amusia: Evidence from a gating paradigm. Cortex 2014; 59:84-94. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.07.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2013] [Revised: 03/20/2014] [Accepted: 07/23/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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26
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Roswandowitz C, Mathias S, Hintz F, Kreitewolf J, Schelinski S, von Kriegstein K. Two Cases of Selective Developmental Voice-Recognition Impairments. Curr Biol 2014; 24:2348-53. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.08.048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2014] [Revised: 07/28/2014] [Accepted: 08/20/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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27
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Menouti K, Akiva-Kabiri L, Banissy MJ, Stewart L. Timbre-colour synaesthesia: exploring the consistency of associations based on timbre. Cortex 2014; 63:1-3. [PMID: 25241393 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.08.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2014] [Revised: 08/04/2014] [Accepted: 08/08/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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28
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Yang WX, Feng J, Huang WT, Zhang CX, Nan Y. Perceptual pitch deficits coexist with pitch production difficulties in music but not Mandarin speech. Front Psychol 2014; 4:1024. [PMID: 24474944 PMCID: PMC3893622 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.01024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2013] [Accepted: 12/31/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Congenital amusia is a musical disorder that mainly affects pitch perception. Among Mandarin speakers, some amusics also have difficulties in processing lexical tones (tone agnosics). To examine to what extent these perceptual deficits may be related to pitch production impairments in music and Mandarin speech, eight amusics, eight tone agnosics, and 12 age- and IQ-matched normal native Mandarin speakers were asked to imitate music note sequences and Mandarin words of comparable lengths. The results indicated that both the amusics and tone agnosics underperformed the controls on musical pitch production. However, tone agnosics performed no worse than the amusics, suggesting that lexical tone perception deficits may not aggravate musical pitch production difficulties. Moreover, these three groups were all able to imitate lexical tones with perfect intelligibility. Taken together, the current study shows that perceptual musical pitch and lexical tone deficits might coexist with musical pitch production difficulties. But at the same time these perceptual pitch deficits might not affect lexical tone production or the intelligibility of the speech words that were produced. The perception-production relationship for pitch among individuals with perceptual pitch deficits may be, therefore, domain-dependent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wu-Xia Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China ; International Data Group/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China
| | - Jie Feng
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China ; International Data Group/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China
| | - Wan-Ting Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China ; International Data Group/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China
| | - Cheng-Xiang Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China ; International Data Group/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China
| | - Yun Nan
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China ; International Data Group/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China ; Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China
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29
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Hutchins S, Moreno S. The Linked Dual Representation model of vocal perception and production. Front Psychol 2013; 4:825. [PMID: 24204360 PMCID: PMC3817506 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00825] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2013] [Accepted: 10/17/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The voice is one of the most important media for communication, yet there is a wide range of abilities in both the perception and production of the voice. In this article, we review this range of abilities, focusing on pitch accuracy as a particularly informative case, and look at the factors underlying these abilities. Several classes of models have been posited describing the relationship between vocal perception and production, and we review the evidence for and against each class of model. We look at how the voice is different from other musical instruments and review evidence about both the association and the dissociation between vocal perception and production abilities. Finally, we introduce the Linked Dual Representation (LDR) model, a new approach which can account for the broad patterns in prior findings, including trends in the data which might seem to be countervailing. We discuss how this model interacts with higher-order cognition and examine its predictions about several aspects of vocal perception and production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean Hutchins
- Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital Toronto, ON, Canada
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30
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Albouy P, Schulze K, Caclin A, Tillmann B. Does tonality boost short-term memory in congenital amusia? Brain Res 2013; 1537:224-32. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2013.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2013] [Revised: 08/21/2013] [Accepted: 09/05/2013] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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31
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Jiang C, Lim VK, Wang H, Hamm JP. Difficulties with pitch discrimination influences pitch memory performance: evidence from congenital amusia. PLoS One 2013; 8:e79216. [PMID: 24205375 PMCID: PMC3808300 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0079216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2013] [Accepted: 09/27/2013] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Music processing is influenced by pitch perception and memory. Additionally these features interact, with pitch memory performance decreasing as the perceived distance between two pitches decreases. This study examined whether or not the difficulty of pitch discrimination influences pitch retention by testing individuals with congenital amusia. Pitch discrimination difficulty was equated by determining an individual’s threshold with a two down one up staircase procedure and using this to create conditions where two pitches (the standard and the comparison tones) differed by 1x, 2x, and 3x the threshold setting. For comparison with the literature a condition that employed a constant pitch difference of four semitones was also included. The results showed that pitch memory performance improved as the discrimination between the standard and the comparison tones was made easier for both amusic and control groups, and more importantly, that amusics did not show any pitch retention deficits when the discrimination difficulty was equated. In contrast, consistent with previous literature, amusics performed worse than controls when the physical pitch distance was held constant at four semitones. This impaired performance has been interpreted as evidence for pitch memory impairment in the past. However, employing a constant pitch distance always makes the difference closer to the discrimination threshold for the amusic group than for the control group. Therefore, reduced performance in this condition may simply reflect differences in the perceptual difficulty of the discrimination. The findings indicate the importance of equating the discrimination difficulty when investigating memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cunmei Jiang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
- * E-mail: (CJ); (JH)
| | - Vanessa K. Lim
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Hang Wang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jeff P. Hamm
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- * E-mail: (CJ); (JH)
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32
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Lense MD, Shivers CM, Dykens EM. (A)musicality in Williams syndrome: examining relationships among auditory perception, musical skill, and emotional responsiveness to music. Front Psychol 2013; 4:525. [PMID: 23966965 PMCID: PMC3744910 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00525] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2013] [Accepted: 07/26/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic, neurodevelopmental disorder, is of keen interest to music cognition researchers because of its characteristic auditory sensitivities and emotional responsiveness to music. However, actual musical perception and production abilities are more variable. We examined musicality in WS through the lens of amusia and explored how their musical perception abilities related to their auditory sensitivities, musical production skills, and emotional responsiveness to music. In our sample of 73 adolescents and adults with WS, 11% met criteria for amusia, which is higher than the 4% prevalence rate reported in the typically developing (TD) population. Amusia was not related to auditory sensitivities but was related to musical training. Performance on the amusia measure strongly predicted musical skill but not emotional responsiveness to music, which was better predicted by general auditory sensitivities. This study represents the first time amusia has been examined in a population with a known neurodevelopmental genetic disorder with a range of cognitive abilities. Results have implications for the relationships across different levels of auditory processing, musical skill development, and emotional responsiveness to music, as well as the understanding of gene-brain-behavior relationships in individuals with WS and TD individuals with and without amusia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miriam D Lense
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Nashville TN, USA ; Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN, USA
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33
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Reduced sensitivity to emotional prosody in congenital amusia rekindles the musical protolanguage hypothesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012; 109:19027-32. [PMID: 23112175 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1210344109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
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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Omigie D, Pearce MT, Stewart L. Tracking of pitch probabilities in congenital amusia. Neuropsychologia 2012; 50:1483-93. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.02.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2011] [Revised: 02/09/2012] [Accepted: 02/27/2012] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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