Disorders of pitch production in tone deafness

Singing is as natural as speaking for the majority of people. Yet some individuals (i.e., 10-15%) are poor singers, typically performing or imitating pitches and melodies inaccurately. This condition, commonly referred to as "tone deafness," has been observed both in the presence and absen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in psychology 2011-01, Vol.2, p.164-164
Main Authors: Bella, Simone Dalla, Berkowska, Magdalena, Sowiński, Jakub
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cognitive neuroscience
Congenital Amusia
music cognition
pitch production
poor-pitch singing
Psychology
speech production
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Summary:Singing is as natural as speaking for the majority of people. Yet some individuals (i.e., 10-15%) are poor singers, typically performing or imitating pitches and melodies inaccurately. This condition, commonly referred to as "tone deafness," has been observed both in the presence and absence of deficient pitch perception. In this article we review the existing literature concerning normal singing, poor-pitch singing, and, briefly, the sources of this condition. Considering that pitch plays a prominent role in the structure of both music and speech we also focus on the possibility that speech production (or imitation) is similarly impaired in poor-pitch singers. Preliminary evidence from our laboratory suggests that pitch imitation may be selectively inaccurate in the music domain without being affected in speech. This finding points to separability of mechanisms subserving pitch production in music and language.
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00164