Foxton Jessica M, Dean Jennifer L, Gee Rosemary, Peretz Isabelle, Griffiths Timothy D
Auditory Group, School of Neurology, Neurobiology and Psychiatry, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Framlington Place, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
Brain. 2004 Apr;127(Pt 4):801-10. doi: 10.1093/brain/awh105. Epub 2004 Feb 25.
Congenital amusia is a disorder characterized by life-long, selective deficits in the perception of music. This study examined pitch-perception abilities in a group of 10 adults with this disorder. Tests were administered that assessed fine-grained pitch perception by determining thresholds both for the detection of continuous and segmented pitch changes, and for the recognition of pitch direction. Tests were also administered that assessed the perception of more complex pitch patterns, using pitch-sequence comparison tasks. In addition, the perceptual organization of pitch was also examined, using stream segregation tasks that assess the assignment of sounds differing in pitch to one or two distinct perceptual sources. In comparison with 10 control subjects, it was found that the participants with congenital amusia exhibited deficits both at the level of detecting fine-grained differences in pitch, and at the level of perceiving patterns in pitch. In contrast, no abnormalities were identified in the perceptual organization of pitch. The pitch deficits identified are able to account for the music perception difficulties in this disorder, and implicate deficient cortical processing.
先天性失歌症是一种以终生选择性音乐感知缺陷为特征的疾病。本研究调查了一组10名患有该疾病的成年人的音高感知能力。进行了多项测试，通过确定连续和分段音高变化的检测阈值以及音高方向的识别来评估精细音高感知。还进行了测试，使用音高序列比较任务来评估对更复杂音高模式的感知。此外，还使用流分离任务检查了音高的感知组织，该任务评估将音高不同的声音分配到一个或两个不同的感知源。与10名对照受试者相比，发现患有先天性失歌症的参与者在检测精细音高差异的水平以及感知音高模式的水平上均表现出缺陷。相比之下，在音高的感知组织中未发现异常。所确定的音高缺陷能够解释该疾病中的音乐感知困难，并暗示皮质处理不足。
