Amusia

Last updated

Amusia
Specialty Neurology

Amusia is a musical disorder that appears mainly as a defect in processing pitch but also encompasses musical memory and recognition. [1] Two main classifications of amusia exist: acquired amusia, which occurs as a result of brain damage, and congenital amusia, which results from a music-processing anomaly present since birth.

Contents

Studies have shown that congenital amusia is a deficit in fine-grained pitch discrimination and that 4% of the population has this disorder. [2] Acquired amusia may take several forms. Patients with brain damage may experience the loss of ability to produce musical sounds while sparing speech, [3] much like aphasics lose speech selectively but can sometimes still sing. [4] [5] Other forms of amusia may affect specific sub-processes of music processing. Current research has demonstrated dissociations between rhythm, melody, and emotional processing of music. [6] Amusia may include impairment of any combination of these skill sets.

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms of amusia are generally categorized as receptive, clinical, or mixed. Symptoms of receptive amusia, sometimes referred to as "musical deafness" or "tone deafness", [7] include the inability to recognize familiar melodies, the loss of ability to read musical notation, and the inability to detect wrong or out-of tune notes. [8] Clinical, or expressive, symptoms include the loss of ability to sing, write musical notation, and/or play an instrument. [9] A mixed disorder is a combination of expressive and receptive impairment.

Clinical symptoms of acquired amusia are much more variable than those of congenital amusia and are determined by the location and nature of the lesion. [8] Brain injuries may affect motor or expressive functioning, including the ability to sing, whistle, or hum a tune (oral-expressive amusia), the ability to play an instrument (instrumental amusia or musical apraxia), and the ability to write music (musical agraphia). Additionally, brain damage to the receptive dimension affects the faculty to discriminate tunes (receptive or sensorial amusia), the ability to read music (musical alessia), and the ability to identify songs that were familiar prior to the brain damage (amnesic amusia).

Research suggests that patients with amusia also have difficulty when it comes to spatial processing. [10] Amusics performed more quickly than normal individuals on a combined task of both spatial and musical processing tasks, which is most likely due to their deficit. Normal individuals experience interference due to their intact processing of both musical and spatial tasks, while amusics do not. [10] Pitch processing normally depends on the cognitive mechanisms that are usually used to process spatial representations. [10]

Those with congenital amusia show impaired performance on discrimination, identification and imitation of sentences with intonational differences in pitch direction in their final word. This suggests that amusia can in subtle ways impair language processing. [11]

Social and emotional

Amusic individuals have a remarkable sparing of emotional responses to music in the context of severe and lifelong deficits in processing music. [12] Some individuals with amusia describe music as unpleasant. Others simply refer to it as noise and find it annoying.[ citation needed ] This can have social implications because amusics often try to avoid music, which in many social situations is not an option.

In China and other countries where tonal languages are spoken, amusia may have the more pronounced social and emotional impact of experiencing difficulty in speaking and understanding the language. [13] However, context clues are often strong enough to determine the correct meaning, similarly to how homophones can be understood. [14]

Amusia has been classified as a learning disability that affects musical abilities. [15] Research suggests that in congenital amusia, younger subjects can be taught tone differentiation techniques. This finding leads researchers to believe that amusia is related to dyslexia and other similar disorders. [16] Research has been shown that amusia may be related to an increase in size of the cerebral cortex, which may be a result of a malformation in cortical development. Conditions such as dyslexia and epilepsy are due to a malformation in cortical development and also lead to an increase in cortical thickness, which leads researchers to believe that congenital amusia may be caused by the identical phenomenon in a different area of the brain. [17]

Amusia is also similar to aphasia in that they affect similar areas of the brain near the temporal lobe. Most cases of those with amusia do not show any symptoms of aphasia. However, a number of cases have shown that those who have aphasia can exhibit symptoms of amusia, especially in acquired aphasia. The two are not mutually exclusive and having one does not imply possession of the other. [15] In acquired amusia, inability to perceive music correlates with an inability to perform other higher-level functions. In this case, as musical ability improves, so too do the higher cognitive functions which suggests that musical ability is closely related to these higher-level functions, such as memory and learning, mental flexibility, and semantic fluency. [18]

Amusia can also be related to aprosody, a disorder in which the person's speech is affected, becoming extremely monotonous. It has been found that both amusia and aprosody can arise from seizures occurring in the non-dominant hemisphere. They can also both arise from lesions to the brain, as can Broca's aphasia come about simultaneously with amusia from injury. There is a relation between musical abilities and the components of speech; however, it is not understood very well. [19]

Diagnosis

The diagnosis of amusia requires multiple investigative tools all described in the Montreal Protocol for Identification of Amusia. [20] This protocol has at its center the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA), [21] which involves a series of tests that evaluate the use of musical characteristics known to contribute to the memory and perception of conventional music, [22] but the protocol also allows for the ruling out of other conditions that can explain the clinical signs observed. The battery comprises six subtests which assess the ability to discriminate pitch contour, musical scales, pitch intervals, rhythm, meter, and memory. [2] An individual is considered amusic if they perform two standard deviations below the mean obtained by musically competent controls.[ citation needed ]

This musical pitch disorder represents a phenotype that serves to identify the associated neuro-genetic factors. [7] Both MRI-based brain structural analyses and electroencephalography (EEG) are common methods employed to uncover brain anomalies associated with amusia (See Neuroanatomy). [23] Additionally, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) is used to detect anatomical differences between the MRIs of amusic brains and musically intact brains, specifically with respect increased and/or decreased amounts of white and grey matter. [23]

Classifications

There are two general classifications of amusia: congenital amusia and acquired amusia.[ citation needed ]

Congenital amusia

Congenital amusia, commonly known as tone deafness or a tin ear, [7] refers to a musical disability that cannot be explained by prior brain lesion, hearing loss, cognitive defects, or lack of environmental stimulation, [22] and it affects about 4% of the population. [2] Individuals with congenital amusia seem to lack the musical predispositions with which most people are born. [24] They are unable to recognize or hum familiar tunes even if they have normal audiometry and above-average intellectual and memory skills. Also, they do not show sensitivity to dissonant chords in a melodic context, which, as discussed earlier, is one of the musical predispositions exhibited by infants. The hallmark of congenital amusia is a deficit in fine-grained pitch discrimination, and this deficit is most apparent when congenital amusics are asked to pick out a wrong note in a given melody. [2] If the distance between two successive pitches is small, congenital amusics are not able to detect a pitch change. As a result of this defect in pitch perception, a lifelong musical impairment may emerge due to a failure to internalize musical scales. A lack of fine-grained pitch discrimination makes it extremely difficult for amusics to enjoy and appreciate music, which consists largely of small pitch changes. [24]

Tone-deaf people seem to be disabled only when it comes to music as they can fully interpret the prosody or intonation of human speech. Tone deafness has a strong negative correlation with belonging to societies with tonal languages.[ citation needed ] This could be evidence that the ability to reproduce and distinguish between notes may be a learned skill; conversely, it may suggest that the genetic predisposition towards accurate pitch discrimination may influence the linguistic development of a population towards tonality. A correlation between allele frequencies and linguistic typological features has been recently discovered, supporting the latter hypothesis. [25]

Tone deafness is also associated with other musical-specific impairments such as the inability to keep time with music (beat deafness, or the lack of rhythm), or the inability to remember or recognize a song. These disabilities can appear separately, but some research shows that they are more likely to appear in tone-deaf people. [26] Experienced musicians, such as W. A. Mathieu, have addressed tone deafness in adults as correctable with training. [27]

Acquired amusia

Acquired amusia is a musical disability that shares the same characteristics as congenital amusia, but rather than being inherited, it is the result of brain damage. [18] It is also more common than congenital amusia. [18] While it has been suggested that music is processed by music-specific neural networks in the brain, this view has been broadened to show that music processing also encompasses generic cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, and executive processes. [18] A study was published in 2009 which investigated the neural and cognitive mechanisms that underlie acquired amusia and contribute to its recovery. [18] The study was performed on 53 stroke patients with a left or right hemisphere middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarction one week, three months, and six months after the stroke occurred. [18] Amusic subjects were identified one week following their stroke, and over the course of the study, amusics and non-amusics were compared in both brain lesion location and their performances on neuropsychological tests.[ citation needed ]

Results showed that there was no significant difference in the distribution of left and right hemisphere lesions between amusic and non-amusic groups, but that the amusic group had a significantly higher number of lesions to the frontal lobe and auditory cortex. [18] Temporal lobe lesions were also observed in patients with amusia. Amusia is a common occurrence following an ischemic MCA stroke, as evidenced by the 60% of patients who were found to be amusic at the one-week post-stroke stage. [18] While significant recovery takes place over time, amusia can persist for long periods of time. [18] Test results suggest that acquired amusia and its recovery in the post-stroke stage are associated with a variety of cognitive functions, particularly attention, executive functioning and working memory. [18]

Neuroanatomy

Neurologically intact individuals appear to be born musical. Even before they are able to talk, infants show remarkable musical abilities that are similar to those of adults in that they are sensitive to musical scales and a regular tempo. [2] Also, infants are able to differentiate between consonant and dissonant intervals. These perceptual skills indicate that music-specific predispositions exist. [2]

Prolonged exposure to music develops and refines these skills. Extensive musical training does not seem to be necessary in the processing of chords and keys. [2] The development of musical competence most likely depends on the encoding of pitch along musical scales and maintaining a regular pulse, both of which are key components in the structure of music and aid in perception, memory, and performance. [2] Also, the encoding of pitch and temporal regularity are both likely to be specialized for music processing. [2] Pitch perception is absolutely crucial to processing music. The use of scales and the organization of scale tones around a central tone (called the tonic) assign particular importance to notes in the scale and cause non-scale notes to sound out of place. This enables the listener to ascertain when a wrong note is played. However, in individuals with amusia, this ability is either compromised or lost entirely. [2]

Music-specific neural networks exist in the brain for a variety of music-related tasks. It has been shown that Broca's area is involved in the processing of musical syntax. [28] Furthermore, brain damage can disrupt an individual's ability to tell the difference between tonal and atonal music and detect the presence of wrong notes, but can preserve the individual's ability to assess the distance between pitches and the direction of the pitch. [2] The opposite scenario can also occur, in which the individual loses pitch discrimination capabilities, but can sense and appreciate the tonal context of the work. Distinct neural networks also exist for music memories, singing, and music recognition. Neural networks for music recognition are particularly intriguing. A patient can undergo brain damage that renders them unable to recognize familiar melodies that are presented without words. However, the patient maintains the ability to recognize spoken lyrics or words, familiar voices, and environmental sounds. [2] The reverse case is also possible, in which the patient cannot recognize spoken words, but can still recognize familiar melodies. These situations overturn previous claims that speech recognition and music recognition share a single processing system. [2] Instead, it is clear that there are at least two distinct processing modules: one for speech and one for music. [2]

Many research studies of individuals with amusia show that a number of cortical regions appear to be involved in processing music. Some report that the primary auditory cortex, secondary auditory cortex, and limbic system are responsible for this faculty, while more recent studies suggest that lesions in other cortical areas, abnormalities in cortical thickness, and deficiency in neural connectivity and brain plasticity may contribute to amusia. While various causes of amusia exist, some general findings that provide insight to the brain mechanisms involved in music processing are discussed below. [8]

Pitch relations

Studies suggest that the analysis of pitch is primarily controlled by the right temporal region of the brain. The right secondary auditory cortex processes pitch change and manipulation of fine tunes; specifically, this region distinguishes the multiple pitches that characterize melodic tunes as contour (pitch direction) and interval (frequency ratio between successive notes) information. [29] The right superior temporal gyrus recruits and evaluates contour information, while both right and left temporal regions recruit and evaluate interval information. [30] In addition, the right anterolateral part of Heschl's gyrus (primary auditory cortex) is also concerned with processing pitch information. [31]

Temporal relations

The brain analyzes the temporal (rhythmic) components of music in two ways: (1) it segments the ongoing sequences of music into temporal events based on duration, and (2) it groups those temporal events to understand the underlying beat to music. Studies on rhythmic discrimination reveal that the right temporal auditory cortex is responsible for temporal segmenting, and the left temporal auditory cortex is responsible for temporal grouping. [32] [33] Other studies suggest the participation of motor cortical areas in rhythm perception and production. [34] Therefore, a lack of involvement and networking between bilateral temporal cortices and neural motor centers may contribute to both congenital and acquired amusia. [8]

Memory

Memory is required in order to process and integrate both melodic and rhythmic aspects of music. Studies suggest that there is a rich interconnection between the right temporal gyrus and frontal cortical areas for working memory in music appreciation. [35] [36] This connection between the temporal and frontal regions of the brain is extremely important since these regions play critical roles in music processing. Changes in the temporal areas of the amusic brain are most likely associated with deficits in pitch perception and other musical characteristics, while changes in the frontal areas are potentially related to deficits in cognitive processing aspects, such as memory, that are needed for musical discrimination tasks. [18] Memory is also concerned with the recognition and internal representation of tunes, which help to identify familiar songs and confer the ability to sing tunes in one's head. The activation of the superior temporal region and left inferior temporal and frontal areas is responsible for the recognition of familiar songs, [30] and the right auditory cortex (a perceptual mechanism) is involved in the internal representation of tunes. [37] These findings suggest that any abnormalities and/or injuries to these regions of the brain could facilitate amusia.[ citation needed ]

Other regions of the brain possibly linked to amusia

Treatment

Currently, no forms of treatment have proven effective in treating amusia. One study has shown tone differentiation techniques to have some success; however, future research on treatment of this disorder will be necessary to verify this technique as an appropriate treatment. [15]

History

In 1825, Franz Joseph Gall mentioned a "musical organ" in a specific region of the human brain that could be spared or disrupted after a traumatic event resulting in brain damage. [40] In 1865, Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud described the first series of cases that involved the loss of music abilities that were due to brain injury. In 1878, Grant Allen was the first to describe in the medical literature what would later be termed congenital amusia, calling it "note-deafness". [41] [42] Later, during the late nineteenth century, several influential neurologists studied language in an attempt to construct a theory of cognition. While not studied as thoroughly as language, music and visual processing were also studied. In 1888–1890, August Knoblauch produced a cognitive model for music processing and termed it amusia. This model for music processing was the earliest produced. [43]

While the possibility that certain individuals may be born with musical deficits is not a new notion, the first documented case of congenital amusia was published only in 2002. [22] The study was conducted with a female volunteer, referred to as Monica, who declared herself to be musically impaired in response to an advertisement in the newspaper. [22] Monica had no psychiatric or neurological history, nor did she have any hearing loss. MRI scans showed no abnormalities. Monica also scored above average on a standard intelligence test, and her working memory was evaluated and found to be normal. However, Monica had a lifelong inability to recognize or perceive music, which had persisted even after involvement with music through church choir and band during her childhood and teenage years. [22] Monica said that she does not enjoy listening to music because, to her, it sounded like noise and evoked a stressful response.

In order to determine if Monica's disorder was amusia, she was subjected to the MBEA series of tests. One of the tests dealt with Monica's difficulties in discriminating pitch variations in sequential notes. In this test, a pair of melodies was played, and Monica was asked if the second melody in the pair contained a wrong note. [22] Monica's score on this test was well below the average score generated by the control group. [22] Further tests showed that Monica struggled with recognizing highly familiar melodies, but that she had no problems in recognizing the voices of well-known speakers. Thus, it was concluded that Monica's deficit seemed limited to music. [22] A later study showed that not only do amusics experience difficulty in discriminating variations in pitch, but they also exhibit deficits in perceiving patterns in pitch. [44]

This finding led to another test that was designed to assess the presence of a deficiency in pitch perception. [22] In this test, Monica heard a sequence of five piano tones of constant pitch followed by a comparison sequence of five piano tones in which the fourth tone could be the same pitch as the other notes in the sequence or a completely different pitch altogether. Monica was asked to respond "yes" if she detected a pitch change on the fourth tone or respond "no" if she could not detect a pitch change. Results showed that Monica could barely detect a pitch change as large as two semitones (whole tone), or half steps. [22] While this pitch-processing deficit is extremely severe, it does not seem to include speech intonation. [22] This is because pitch variations in speech are very coarse compared with those used in music. [2] In conclusion, Monica's learning disability arose from a basic problem in pitch discrimination, which is viewed as the origin of congenital amusia. [22]

Research

Over the past decade,[ as of? ] much has been discovered about amusia. However, there remains a great deal more to learn. While a method of treatment for people with amusia has not been defined, tone differentiation techniques have been used on amusic patients with some success. It was found with this research that children reacted positively to these tone differentiation techniques, while adults found the training annoying. [15] However, further research in this direction would aid in determining if this would be a viable treatment option for people with amusia. Additional research can also serve to indicate which processing component in the brain is essential for normal music development. [22] Also, it would be extremely beneficial to investigate musical learning in relation to amusia since this could provide valuable insights into other forms of learning disabilities such as dysphasia and dyslexia. [45] [22]

Notable cases

In fiction

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temporal lobe</span> One of the four lobes of the mammalian brain

The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auditory cortex</span> Part of the temporal lobe of the brain

The auditory cortex is the part of the temporal lobe that processes auditory information in humans and many other vertebrates. It is a part of the auditory system, performing basic and higher functions in hearing, such as possible relations to language switching. It is located bilaterally, roughly at the upper sides of the temporal lobes – in humans, curving down and onto the medial surface, on the superior temporal plane, within the lateral sulcus and comprising parts of the transverse temporal gyri, and the superior temporal gyrus, including the planum polare and planum temporale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transverse temporal gyrus</span> Gyrus of the primary auditory cortex of the brain

The transverse temporal gyri, also called Heschl's gyri or Heschl's convolutions, are gyri found in the area of primary auditory cortex buried within the lateral sulcus of the human brain, occupying Brodmann areas 41 and 42. Transverse temporal gyri are superior to and separated from the planum temporale by Heschl's sulcus. Transverse temporal gyri are found in varying numbers in both the right and left hemispheres of the brain and one study found that this number is not related to the hemisphere or dominance of hemisphere studied in subjects. Transverse temporal gyri can be viewed in the sagittal plane as either an omega shape or a heart shape.

Auditory imagery is a form of mental imagery that is used to organize and analyze sounds when there is no external auditory stimulus present. This form of imagery is broken up into a couple of auditory modalities such as verbal imagery or musical imagery. This modality of mental imagery differs from other sensory images such as motor imagery or visual imagery. The vividness and detail of auditory imagery can vary from person to person depending on their background and condition of their brain. Through all of the research developed to understand auditory imagery behavioral neuroscientists have found that the auditory images developed in subjects' minds are generated in real time and consist of fairly precise information about quantifiable auditory properties as well as melodic and harmonic relationships. These studies have been able to recently gain confirmation and recognition due to the arrival of Positron emission tomography and fMRI scans that can confirm a physiological and psychological correlation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Language processing in the brain</span> How humans use words to communicate

In psycholinguistics, language processing refers to the way humans use words to communicate ideas and feelings, and how such communications are processed and understood. Language processing is considered to be a uniquely human ability that is not produced with the same grammatical understanding or systematicity in even human's closest primate relatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brodmann area 22</span>

Brodmann area 22 is a Brodmann's area that is cytoarchitecturally located in the posterior superior temporal gyrus of the brain. In the left cerebral hemisphere, it is one portion of Wernicke's area. The left hemisphere BA22 helps with generation and understanding of individual words. On the right side of the brain, BA22 helps to discriminate pitch and sound intensity, both of which are necessary to perceive melody and prosody. Wernicke's area is active in processing language and consists of the left Brodmann area 22 and Brodmann area 40, the supramarginal gyrus.

Auditory verbal agnosia (AVA), also known as pure word deafness, is the inability to comprehend speech. Individuals with this disorder lose the ability to understand language, repeat words, and write from dictation. Some patients with AVA describe hearing spoken language as meaningless noise, often as though the person speaking was doing so in a foreign language. However, spontaneous speaking, reading, and writing are preserved. The maintenance of the ability to process non-speech auditory information, including music, also remains relatively more intact than spoken language comprehension. Individuals who exhibit pure word deafness are also still able to recognize non-verbal sounds. The ability to interpret language via lip reading, hand gestures, and context clues is preserved as well. Sometimes, this agnosia is preceded by cortical deafness; however, this is not always the case. Researchers have documented that in most patients exhibiting auditory verbal agnosia, the discrimination of consonants is more difficult than that of vowels, but as with most neurological disorders, there is variation among patients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inferior temporal gyrus</span> One of three gyri of the temporal lobe of the brain

The inferior temporal gyrus is one of three gyri of the temporal lobe and is located below the middle temporal gyrus, connected behind with the inferior occipital gyrus; it also extends around the infero-lateral border on to the inferior surface of the temporal lobe, where it is limited by the inferior sulcus. This region is one of the higher levels of the ventral stream of visual processing, associated with the representation of objects, places, faces, and colors. It may also be involved in face perception, and in the recognition of numbers and words.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cortical deafness</span> Medical condition

Cortical deafness is a rare form of sensorineural hearing loss caused by damage to the primary auditory cortex. Cortical deafness is an auditory disorder where the patient is unable to hear sounds but has no apparent damage to the structures of the ear. It has been argued to be as the combination of auditory verbal agnosia and auditory agnosia. Patients with cortical deafness cannot hear any sounds, that is, they are not aware of sounds including non-speech, voices, and speech sounds. Although patients appear and feel completely deaf, they can still exhibit some reflex responses such as turning their head towards a loud sound.

Auditory agnosia is a form of agnosia that manifests itself primarily in the inability to recognize or differentiate between sounds. It is not a defect of the ear or "hearing", but rather a neurological inability of the brain to process sound meaning. While auditory agnosia impairs the understanding of sounds, other abilities such as reading, writing, and speaking are not hindered. It is caused by bilateral damage to the anterior superior temporal gyrus, which is part of the auditory pathway responsible for sound recognition, the auditory "what" pathway.

Musical memory refers to the ability to remember music-related information, such as melodic content and other progressions of tones or pitches. The differences found between linguistic memory and musical memory have led researchers to theorize that musical memory is encoded differently from language and may constitute an independent part of the phonological loop. The use of this term is problematic, however, since it implies input from a verbal system, whereas music is in principle nonverbal.

The neuroscience of music is the scientific study of brain-based mechanisms involved in the cognitive processes underlying music. These behaviours include music listening, performing, composing, reading, writing, and ancillary activities. It also is increasingly concerned with the brain basis for musical aesthetics and musical emotion. Scientists working in this field may have training in cognitive neuroscience, neurology, neuroanatomy, psychology, music theory, computer science, and other relevant fields.

Neuroscientists have learned much about the role of the brain in numerous cognitive mechanisms by understanding corresponding disorders. Similarly, neuroscientists have come to learn much about music cognition by studying music-specific disorders. Even though music is most often viewed from a "historical perspective rather than a biological one" music has significantly gained the attention of neuroscientists all around the world. For many centuries music has been strongly associated with art and culture. The reason for this increased interest in music is because it "provides a tool to study numerous aspects of neuroscience, from motor skill learning to emotion".

Change deafness is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when, under certain circumstances, a physical change in an auditory stimulus goes unnoticed by the listener. There is uncertainty regarding the mechanisms by which changes to auditory stimuli go undetected, though scientific research has been done to determine the levels of processing at which these consciously undetected auditory changes are actually encoded. An understanding of the mechanisms underlying change deafness could offer insight on issues such as the completeness of our representation of the auditory environment, the limitations of the auditory perceptual system, and the relationship between the auditory system and memory. The phenomenon of change deafness is thought to be related to the interactions between high and low level processes that produce conscious experiences of auditory soundscapes.

The Levitin effect is a phenomenon whereby people, even those without musical training, tend to remember songs in the correct key. The finding stands in contrast to the large body of laboratory literature suggesting that such details of perceptual experience are lost during the process of memory encoding, so that people would remember melodies with relative pitch, rather than absolute pitch.

Beat deafness is a form of congenital amusia characterized by a person's inability to distinguish musical rhythm or move in time to it.

The temporal dynamics of music and language describes how the brain coordinates its different regions to process musical and vocal sounds. Both music and language feature rhythmic and melodic structure. Both employ a finite set of basic elements that are combined in ordered ways to create complete musical or lingual ideas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sign language in the brain</span>

Sign language refers to any natural language which uses visual gestures produced by the hands and body language to express meaning. The brain's left side is the dominant side utilized for producing and understanding sign language, just as it is for speech. In 1861, Paul Broca studied patients with the ability to understand spoken languages but the inability to produce them. The damaged area was named Broca's area, and located in the left hemisphere’s inferior frontal gyrus. Soon after, in 1874, Carl Wernicke studied patients with the reverse deficits: patients could produce spoken language, but could not comprehend it. The damaged area was named Wernicke's area, and is located in the left hemisphere’s posterior superior temporal gyrus.

Auditory arrhythmia is the inability to rhythmically perform music, to keep time, and to replicate musical or rhythmic patterns. It has been caused by damage to the cerebrum or rewiring of the brain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auditosensory cortex</span>

Auditosensory cortex is the part of the auditory system that is associated with the sense of hearing in humans. It occupies the bilateral primary auditory cortex in the temporal lobe of the mammalian brain. The term is used to describe Brodmann area 42 together with the transverse temporal gyri of Heschl. The auditosensory cortex takes part in the reception and processing of auditory nerve impulses, which passes sound information from the thalamus to the brain. Abnormalities in this region are responsible for many disorders in auditory abilities, such as congenital deafness, true cortical deafness, primary progressive aphasia and auditory hallucination.

References

  1. Pearce, J. M. S. (2005). "Selected observations on amusia." [Article]". European Neurology . 54 (3): 145–48. doi:10.1159/000089606. PMID   16282692. S2CID   38916333.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Peretz I, Hyde KL (2003). "What is specific to music processing? Insights from congenital amusia." [Review]". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 7 (8): 362–67. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.585.2171 . doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(03)00150-5. PMID   12907232. S2CID   3224978.
  3. Peretz I, Zatorre R (2005). "Brain Organization for Music Processing". Annual Review of Psychology. 56: 89–114. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070225. PMID   15709930.
  4. Hébert S, Racette A, Gagnon L, Peretz I (2003). "Revisiting the dissociation between singing and speaking in expressive aphasia". Brain. 126 (8): 1838–50. doi: 10.1093/brain/awg186 . PMID   12821526. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
  5. Dorgueille, C. 1966. Introduction à l'étude des amusies. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Université de la Sorbonne, Paris.
  6. Sacks, Oliver. (2007). Musicophilia, New York: Random House. pp. 3–17, 187–258, 302–03.
  7. 1 2 3 Peretz I, Cummings S, Dube MP (2007). "The genetics of congenital amusia (tone deafness): A family-aggregation study." [Article]". American Journal of Human Genetics. 81 (3): 582–88. doi:10.1086/521337. PMC   1950825 . PMID   17701903.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 http://amusia-brain.blogspot.com/2008/02/definition_25.html Hutchings, Tiffany, Seth Hayden, Mandy Politziner, and Erina Kainuma. "Amusia." Web log post. Amusia: Definition, Welcome to Amusia..., Congenital and Acquired Amusia, Neural Overview. 25 February 2008. Web. 10 October 2009.
  9. Bautista R, Ciampetti M (2003). "Expressive Aprosody and Amusia as a Manifestation of Right Hemisphere Seizures". Epilepsia. 44 (3): 466–67. doi: 10.1046/j.1528-1157.2003.36502.x . PMID   12614406.
  10. 1 2 3 Douglas KM, Bilkey DK (2007). "Amusia is Associated with Deficits in Spatial Processing". Nature Neuroscience. 10 (7): 915–21. doi:10.1038/nn1925. PMID   17589505. S2CID   5398605.
  11. Liu F, Patel AD, Fourcin A, Stewart L (2010). "Intonation processing in congenital amusia: discrimination, identification and imitation". Brain. 133 (6): 1682–93. doi: 10.1093/brain/awq089 . PMID   20418275.
  12. Gosselin, Nathalie; Paquette, Sébastien; Peretz, Isabelle (October 2015). "Sensitivity to musical emotions in congenital amusia". Cortex. 71: 171–182. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.06.022. PMID   26226563. S2CID   18253096.
  13. Tillmann, Barbara; Burnham, Denis; Nguyen, Sebastien; Grimault, Nicolas; Gosselin, Nathalie; Peretz, Isabelle (2011). "Congenital Amusia (or Tone-Deafness) Interferes with Pitch Processing in Tone Languages". Frontiers in Psychology. 2: 120. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00120 . ISSN   1664-1078. PMC   3119887 . PMID   21734894.
  14. "WonderQuest: Tonal languages for the tone-deaf [or A horse is a hoarse of course of coarse], An Enterprising question". 13 February 2006. Archived from the original on 13 February 2006. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Ayotte, Julie; Peretz, Isabelle; Hyde, Krista (2002). "Congenital Amusia". Brain. 125 (2): 238–51. doi: 10.1093/brain/awf028 . PMID   11844725.
  16. Peretz, Isabelle; Brattico, Elvira; Tervaniemi, Mari (2002). "Abnormal Electrical Brain Responses to Pitch in Congenital Amusia". Annals of Neurology. 58 (3): 478–82. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.598.544 . doi:10.1002/ana.20606. PMID   16130110. S2CID   7866573.
  17. Hyde, Krista; Lerch, Jason; Zatorre, Robert J (2007). "Cortical Thickness in Congenital Amusia: When Less Is Better Than More". The Journal of Neuroscience. 27 (47): 13028–32. doi: 10.1523/jneurosci.3039-07.2007 . PMC   6673307 . PMID   18032676.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Sarkamo T, Tervaniemi M, Soinila S, Autti T, Silvennoinen HM, Laine M, et al. (2009). "Cognitive deficits associated with acquired amusia after stroke: A neuropsychological follow-up study." [Article]". Neuropsychologia. 47 (12): 2642–2651. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.05.015. PMID   19500606. S2CID   5773246.
  19. Bautista RE, Ciampetti MZ (2003). "Expressive Aprosody and Amusia as a Manifestation of Right Hemisphere Seizures". Epilepsia. 44 (3): 466–67. doi: 10.1046/j.1528-1157.2003.36502.x . PMID   12614406.
  20. Vuvan, D. T.; Paquette, S.; Mignault Goulet, G.; Royal, I.; Felezeu, M.; Peretz, I. (1 June 2018). "Erratum to: The Montreal Protocol for Identification of Amusia". Behavior Research Methods. 50 (3): 1308. doi: 10.3758/s13428-017-0941-3 . ISSN   1554-3528. PMID   28718085.
  21. Peretz I, Champod AS, Hyde KL (2003). "Varieties of musical disorders. The Montreal battery of evaluation of amusia". Ann N Y Acad Sci. 999 (1): 58–75. Bibcode:2003NYASA.999...58P. doi:10.1196/annals.1284.006. PMID   14681118. S2CID   46677158.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Peretz I, Ayotte J, Zatorre RJ, Mehler J, Ahad P, Penhune VB, et al. (2002). "Congenital amusia: A disorder of fine-grained pitch discrimination". Neuron. 33 (2): 185–91. doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(01)00580-3 . PMID   11804567. S2CID   16662662.
  23. 1 2 Peretz, Isabelle; Brattico, Elvira; Järvenpää, Miika; Tervaniemi, Mari (2009). "The amusic brain: in tune, out of key, and unaware". Brain. 132 (5): 1277–86. doi:10.1093/brain/awp055. PMID   19336462.
  24. 1 2 Hyde KL, Peretz I (2004). "Brains that are out of tune but in time." [Article]". Psychological Science. 15 (5): 356–60. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.485.7939 . doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00683.x. PMID   15102148. S2CID   14025136.
  25. Dediu, Dan; Ladd, D. Robert (June 2007). "Linguistic tone is related to the population frequency of the adaptive haplogroups of two brain size genes, ASPM and Microcephalin". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 104 (26): 10944–49. Bibcode:2007PNAS..10410944D. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0610848104 . PMC   1904158 . PMID   17537923.
  26. Ayotte, Julie; Peretz, Isabelle; Hyde, Krista (February 2002). "Congenital amusia: a group study of adults afflicted with a music-specific disorder". Brain . 125 (2): 238–51. doi: 10.1093/brain/awf028 . PMID   11844725.
  27. Mathieu, W. A. "Tone-Deaf Choir" . Retrieved 26 February 2009.
  28. Burkhard Maess, Stefan Koelsch, Thomas C. Gunter and Angela D. Friederici. "Musical syntax is processed in Broca's area: an MEG study" (2001) Nature Publishing Group.
  29. Zatorre RJ, Berlin P (2001). "Spectral and temporal processing in human auditory cortex". Cerebral Cortex. 11 (10): 946–53. doi: 10.1093/cercor/11.10.946 . PMID   11549617.
  30. 1 2 Ayotte J, Peretz I, Rousseau I, Bard C, Bojanowski M (2000). "Patterns of music agnosia associated with middle cerebral artery infarcts". Brain. 123 (9): 1926–38. doi: 10.1093/brain/123.9.1926 . PMID   10960056.
  31. Tramo M, Shah GD, Braida LD (2002). "Functional role of auditory cortex in frequency processing and pitch perception". Journal of Neurophysiology. 87 (1): 122–39. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.588.2041 . doi:10.1152/jn.00104.1999. PMID   11784735. S2CID   353602.
  32. DiPietro M, Laganaro M, Leeman B, Schnider A (2004). "Receptive amusia: temporal auditory deficit in a processional musician following a left temporo-parietal lesion". Neuropsychologia. 42 (7): 868–977. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2003.12.004. PMID   14998702. S2CID   18348937.
  33. Wilson SJ, Pressing J, Wales RJ (2002). "Modeling rhythmic function in a musician post-stroke". Neuropsychologia. 40 (8): 1494–505. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.511.1384 . doi:10.1016/s0028-3932(01)00198-1. PMID   11931954. S2CID   16730354.
  34. Halsband U, Ito N, Tanji J, Freund HJ (1993). "The role of premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area in the temporal control of movement in man". Brain. 116: 243–46. doi:10.1093/brain/116.1.243. PMID   8453461.
  35. Zatorre RJ, Samson S (1991). "Role of the right temporal neocortex in retention of pitch in auditory short-term memory". Brain. 114 (6): 2403–17. doi:10.1093/brain/114.6.2403. PMID   1782523.
  36. Gaab, N., Gaser, C., Zaehle, T., Jancke, L., Schlaug, G. (2003). Functional anatomy of pitch memory-an fMRI study with sparse temoral sampling. NeuroLmage. 19:1417-1426.
  37. Zatorre RJ, Halpern R (1993). "Effect of unilateral temporal-lobe excision on percention and imagery of songs". Neuropsychologia. 31 (3): 221–32. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(93)90086-f. PMID   8492875. S2CID   19749696.
  38. Loui, P.; Alsop, D.; Schlaug, S. (2009). "Tone Deafness: A New Disconnection Syndrome?". Journal of Neuroscience. 29 (33): 10215–120. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1701-09.2009. PMC   2747525 . PMID   19692596.
  39. 1 2 3 Hyde KL, Zatorre RJ, Griffiths TD, Lerch JP, Peretz I (2006). "Morphometry of the amusic brain: a two-site study." [Article]". Brain. 129 (10): 2562–70. doi: 10.1093/brain/awl204 . PMID   16931534.
  40. Alossa, Nicoletta; Castelli, Lorys, "Amusia and Musical Functioning", Eur Neurol, Vol. 61, No. 5, pp. 269–77 (2009)
  41. Allen, Grant (April 1878). "Note-Deafness". Mind . 3 (10): 157–167. JSTOR   2246926 via JSTOR.
  42. Correa, Jasmine (24 March 2014). "Amusia". Grey Matters (3).
  43. Johnson, Julene K (2003). "August Knoblauch and amusia: A nineteenth-century cognitive model of music". Brain and Cognition. 51 (1): 102–14. doi:10.1016/S0278-2626(02)00527-4. PMID   12633592. S2CID   46669189.
  44. Foxton JM, Dean JL, Gee R, Peretz I, Griffiths TD (2004). "Characterization of deficits in pitch perception underlying 'tone deafness'." [Article]". Brain. 127 (4): 801–10. doi:10.1093/brain/awh105. PMID   14985262.
  45. Ayotte J, Peretz I, Hyde K (2002). "Congenital amusia – A group study of adults afflicted with a music-specific disorder." [Article]". Brain. 125 (Pt 2): 238–51. doi: 10.1093/brain/awf028 . PMID   11844725.
  46. See Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts
  47. Marmon Silko, Leslie (1981). Storyteller , p. 254. Arcade. ISBN   1-55970-005-X. Boas encountered difficulty with tonal languages such as Laguna.
  48. Hunter, Graeme K.; Light is a messenger: the life and science of William Lawrence Bragg, p. 158. ISBN   0-19-852921-X
  49. Norwich, John Julius. The Duff Cooper Diaries 1915–1951. Phoenix, 2006, ISBN   978-0-7538-2105-3, p. 109.
  50. LaFee, Scott (9 February 2009). "Darwin's Legacy: Natural selections". The San Diego Union-Tribune . Archived from the original on 25 April 2009. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
  51. Zeltner, Philip N.; John Dewey's Aesthetic Philosophy, p. 93. ISBN   90-6032-029-8
  52. "Can't chant, can't speak English? Pope says it's because he's tone-deaf", Catholic News Service, 2 April 2013
  53. Sacks, Oliver; Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain; p. 108 ISBN   1-4000-3353-5
  54. 1 2 3 Münte, Thomas (February 2002). "Brains out of Tune". Nature. 415 (6872): 589–90. doi: 10.1038/415589a . PMID   11832921. S2CID   4412665.
  55. Baril, Daniel (12 April 1999). "Le cerveau musical". Forum. Vol. 33, no. 26. Université de Montréal . Retrieved 19 July 2008.
  56. Crow, James Franklin and Dove, William F.; Perspectives on genetics: anecdotal, historical, and critical commentaries, p. 254. ISBN   0-299-16604-X
  57. Hamilton, W. D. and Ridley, Mark; Narrow Roads of Gene Land: The Collected Papers of W. D. Hamilton Volume 3, p. 7. ISBN   0-19-856690-5
  58. Cox, Stephen (2004). The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America. New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA: Transaction Publishers, p. 85. ISBN   978-0-7658-0241-5.
  59. "The Life of W. B. Yeats". The New York Times.

Further reading