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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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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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Fiveash A, Burger B, Canette LH, Bedoin N, Tillmann B. When Visual Cues Do Not Help the Beat: Evidence for a Detrimental Effect of Moving Point-Light Figures on Rhythmic Priming. Front Psychol 2022; 13:807987. [PMID: 35185727 PMCID: PMC8855071 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.807987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2021] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Rhythm perception involves strong auditory-motor connections that can be enhanced with movement. However, it is unclear whether just seeing someone moving to a rhythm can enhance auditory-motor coupling, resulting in stronger entrainment. Rhythmic priming studies show that presenting regular rhythms before naturally spoken sentences can enhance grammaticality judgments compared to irregular rhythms or other baseline conditions. The current study investigated whether introducing a point-light figure moving in time with regular rhythms could enhance the rhythmic priming effect. Three experiments revealed that the addition of a visual cue did not benefit rhythmic priming in comparison to auditory conditions with a static image. In Experiment 1 (27 7–8-year-old children), grammaticality judgments were poorer after audio-visual regular rhythms (with a bouncing point-light figure) compared to auditory-only regular rhythms. In Experiments 2 (31 adults) and 3 (31 different adults), there was no difference in grammaticality judgments after audio-visual regular rhythms compared to auditory-only irregular rhythms for either a bouncing point-light figure (Experiment 2) or a swaying point-light figure (Experiment 3). Comparison of the observed performance with previous data suggested that the audio-visual component removed the regular prime benefit. These findings suggest that the visual cues used in this study do not enhance rhythmic priming and could hinder the effect by potentially creating a dual-task situation. In addition, individual differences in sensory-motor and social scales of music reward influenced the effect of the visual cue. Implications for future audio-visual experiments aiming to enhance beat processing, and the importance of individual differences will be discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Fiveash
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
- *Correspondence: Anna Fiveash,
| | - Birgitta Burger
- Institute for Systematic Musicology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Laure-Hélène Canette
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
- University of Burgundy, F-21000, LEAD-CNRS UMR 5022, Dijon, France
| | - Nathalie Bedoin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 2, Lyon, France
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, Lyon, France
- University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
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Rapid Assessment of Non-Verbal Auditory Perception in Normal-Hearing Participants and Cochlear Implant Users. J Clin Med 2021; 10:jcm10102093. [PMID: 34068067 PMCID: PMC8152499 DOI: 10.3390/jcm10102093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2021] [Revised: 04/26/2021] [Accepted: 05/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
In the case of hearing loss, cochlear implants (CI) allow for the restoration of hearing. Despite the advantages of CIs for speech perception, CI users still complain about their poor perception of their auditory environment. Aiming to assess non-verbal auditory perception in CI users, we developed five listening tests. These tests measure pitch change detection, pitch direction identification, pitch short-term memory, auditory stream segregation, and emotional prosody recognition, along with perceived intensity ratings. In order to test the potential benefit of visual cues for pitch processing, the three pitch tests included half of the trials with visual indications to perform the task. We tested 10 normal-hearing (NH) participants with material being presented as original and vocoded sounds, and 10 post-lingually deaf CI users. With the vocoded sounds, the NH participants had reduced scores for the detection of small pitch differences, and reduced emotion recognition and streaming abilities compared to the original sounds. Similarly, the CI users had deficits for small differences in the pitch change detection task and emotion recognition, as well as a decreased streaming capacity. Overall, this assessment allows for the rapid detection of specific patterns of non-verbal auditory perception deficits. The current findings also open new perspectives about how to enhance pitch perception capacities using visual cues.
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Møller C, Garza-Villarreal EA, Hansen NC, Højlund A, Bærentsen KB, Chakravarty MM, Vuust P. Audiovisual structural connectivity in musicians and non-musicians: a cortical thickness and diffusion tensor imaging study. Sci Rep 2021; 11:4324. [PMID: 33619288 PMCID: PMC7900203 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-83135-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 01/29/2021] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Our sensory systems provide complementary information about the multimodal objects and events that are the target of perception in everyday life. Professional musicians' specialization in the auditory domain is reflected in the morphology of their brains, which has distinctive characteristics, particularly in areas related to auditory and audio-motor activity. Here, we combined diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with a behavioral measure of visually induced gain in pitch discrimination, and we used measures of cortical thickness (CT) correlations to assess how auditory specialization and musical expertise are reflected in the structural architecture of white and grey matter relevant to audiovisual processing. Across all participants (n = 45), we found a correlation (p < 0.001) between reliance on visual cues in pitch discrimination and the fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), a structure connecting visual and auditory brain areas. Group analyses also revealed greater cortical thickness correlation between visual and auditory areas in non-musicians (n = 28) compared to musicians (n = 17), possibly reflecting musicians' auditory specialization (FDR < 10%). Our results corroborate and expand current knowledge of functional specialization with a specific focus on audition, and highlight the fact that perception is essentially multimodal while uni-sensory processing is a specialized task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilie Møller
- grid.7048.b0000 0001 1956 2722Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Universitetsbyen 3, Building 1710, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Eduardo A. Garza-Villarreal
- grid.7048.b0000 0001 1956 2722Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark ,grid.9486.30000 0001 2159 0001Institute of Neurobiology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Boulevard Juriquilla 3001, C.P. 76230 Querétaro, Querétaro Mexico
| | - Niels Chr. Hansen
- grid.7048.b0000 0001 1956 2722Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Universitetsbyen 3, Building 1710, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark ,grid.7048.b0000 0001 1956 2722Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Andreas Højlund
- grid.7048.b0000 0001 1956 2722Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark ,grid.7048.b0000 0001 1956 2722Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Klaus B. Bærentsen
- grid.7048.b0000 0001 1956 2722Department of Psychology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - M. Mallar Chakravarty
- grid.412078.80000 0001 2353 5268Cerebral Imaging Center, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, QC Canada ,grid.14709.3b0000 0004 1936 8649Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada ,grid.14709.3b0000 0004 1936 8649Department of Biological and Biomedical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada
| | - Peter Vuust
- grid.7048.b0000 0001 1956 2722Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University & The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, Universitetsbyen 3, Building 1710, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
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Roy C, Dalla Bella S, Pla S, Lagarde J. Multisensory integration and behavioral stability. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2019; 85:879-886. [PMID: 31792611 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-019-01273-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2019] [Accepted: 11/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Information coming from multiple senses, as compared to a single one, typically enhances our performance. The multisensory improvement has been extensively examined in perception studies, as well as in tasks involving a motor response like a simple reaction time. However, how this effect extends to more complex behavior, typically involving the coordination of movements, such as bimanual coordination or walking, is still unclear. A critical element in achieving motor coordination in complex behavior is its stability. Reaching a stable state in the coordination pattern allows to sustain complex behavior over time (e.g., without interruption or negative consequences, like falling). This study focuses on the relation between stability in the coordination of movement patterns, like walking, and multisensory improvement. Participants walk with unimodal and audio-tactile metronomes presented either at their preferred rate or at a slower walking rate, the instruction being to synchronize their steps to the metronomes. Walking at a slower rate makes gait more variable than walking at the preferred rate. Interestingly however, the multimodal stimuli enhance the stability of motor coordination but only in the slower condition. Thus, the reduced stability of the coordination pattern (at a slower gait rate) prompts the sensorimotor system to capitalize on multimodal stimulation. These findings provide evidence of a new link between multisensory improvement and behavioral stability, in the context of ecological sensorimotor task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Roy
- EuroMov Laboratory, Montpellier University, Montpellier, France. .,Applied Cognitive Psychology Laboratory, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 43, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
| | - Simone Dalla Bella
- EuroMov Laboratory, Montpellier University, Montpellier, France.,International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montreal, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada
| | - Simon Pla
- EuroMov Laboratory, Montpellier University, Montpellier, France
| | - Julien Lagarde
- EuroMov Laboratory, Montpellier University, Montpellier, France
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Visually induced gains in pitch discrimination: Linking audio-visual processing with auditory abilities. Atten Percept Psychophys 2019; 80:999-1010. [PMID: 29473142 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-017-1481-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Perception is fundamentally a multisensory experience. The principle of inverse effectiveness (PoIE) states how the multisensory gain is maximal when responses to the unisensory constituents of the stimuli are weak. It is one of the basic principles underlying multisensory processing of spatiotemporally corresponding crossmodal stimuli that are well established at behavioral as well as neural levels. It is not yet clear, however, how modality-specific stimulus features influence discrimination of subtle changes in a crossmodally corresponding feature belonging to another modality. Here, we tested the hypothesis that reliance on visual cues to pitch discrimination follow the PoIE at the interindividual level (i.e., varies with varying levels of auditory-only pitch discrimination abilities). Using an oddball pitch discrimination task, we measured the effect of varying visually perceived vertical position in participants exhibiting a wide range of pitch discrimination abilities (i.e., musicians and nonmusicians). Visual cues significantly enhanced pitch discrimination as measured by the sensitivity index d', and more so in the crossmodally congruent than incongruent condition. The magnitude of gain caused by compatible visual cues was associated with individual pitch discrimination thresholds, as predicted by the PoIE. This was not the case for the magnitude of the congruence effect, which was unrelated to individual pitch discrimination thresholds, indicating that the pitch-height association is robust to variations in auditory skills. Our findings shed light on individual differences in multisensory processing by suggesting that relevant multisensory information that crucially aids some perceivers' performance may be of less importance to others, depending on their unisensory abilities.
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Zhou L, Liu F, Jing X, Jiang C. Neural differences between the processing of musical meaning conveyed by direction of pitch change and natural music in congenital amusia. Neuropsychologia 2017; 96:29-38. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.12.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2016] [Revised: 10/07/2016] [Accepted: 12/22/2016] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
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9
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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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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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Albouy P, Cousineau M, Caclin A, Tillmann B, Peretz I. Impaired encoding of rapid pitch information underlies perception and memory deficits in congenital amusia. Sci Rep 2016; 6:18861. [PMID: 26732511 PMCID: PMC4702148 DOI: 10.1038/srep18861] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2015] [Accepted: 11/27/2015] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent theories suggest that the basis of neurodevelopmental auditory disorders such as dyslexia or specific language impairment might be a low-level sensory dysfunction. In the present study we test this hypothesis in congenital amusia, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe deficits in the processing of pitch-based material. We manipulated the temporal characteristics of auditory stimuli and investigated the influence of the time given to encode pitch information on participants' performance in discrimination and short-term memory. Our results show that amusics' performance in such tasks scales with the duration available to encode acoustic information. This suggests that in auditory neuro-developmental disorders, abnormalities in early steps of the auditory processing can underlie the high-level deficits (here musical disabilities). Observing that the slowing down of temporal dynamics improves amusics' pitch abilities allows considering this approach as a potential tool for remediation in developmental auditory disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philippe Albouy
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics Team & Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CRNL, CNRS UMR5292, INSERM U1028, Lyon, F-69000, France
- Université Lyon 1, Lyon, F-69000, France
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada H3C 3J7
- Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada H3A 2B4
| | - Marion Cousineau
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada H3C 3J7
| | - Anne Caclin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics Team & Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CRNL, CNRS UMR5292, INSERM U1028, Lyon, F-69000, France
- Université Lyon 1, Lyon, F-69000, France
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics Team & Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CRNL, CNRS UMR5292, INSERM U1028, Lyon, F-69000, France
- Université Lyon 1, Lyon, F-69000, France
| | - Isabelle Peretz
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada H3C 3J7
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