Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, 410011, China.
CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, 100101, China.
Neuropsychologia. 2021 Jun 18;156:107833. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107833. Epub 2021 Mar 20.
Congenital amusia is as a neurodevelopment disorder primarily defined by impairment in pitch discrimination and pitch memory. Interestingly, it has been reported that individuals with congenital amusia also exhibit deficits in face recognition (prosopagnosia). One explanation of such comorbidity is that the neural substrates of pitch recognition and face recognition may be similar. To test this hypothesis, face recognition ability was assessed using the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) and gray matter volume was determined through voxel-based morphometry (VBM) among participants with and without congenital amusia. As expected, participants with amusia performed worse on the CFMT test and showed reduced gray matter volume (GMV) in the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), the superior temporal gyrus (STG), and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in the right hemisphere, when compared with matched controls. Furthermore, correlation analyses demonstrated that the CFMT score was positively related to MTG, STG, and PCC GMV in all participants, while separate analyses of each group found a positive correlation of CFMT score and PCC GMV in amusics. These findings suggest that face recognition is associated with a widely distributed microstructural network in the human brain and the PCC plays an important role in both pitch recognition and face recognition in amusics. In addition, neurodevelopmental disorders such as congenital amusia and prosopagnosia may share a common neural substrate.
先天性失歌症是一种神经发育障碍，主要表现为音高辨别和音高记忆受损。有趣的是，据报道，先天性失歌症患者也存在面孔识别（面孔失认症）缺陷。对于这种共病现象的一种解释是，音高识别和面孔识别的神经基础可能相似。为了验证这一假设，我们使用剑桥面孔记忆测试（CFMT）评估了具有和不具有先天性失歌症的参与者的面孔识别能力，并通过基于体素的形态测量学（VBM）确定了灰质体积。正如预期的那样，与匹配的对照组相比，失歌症患者在 CFMT 测试中表现更差，并且在右侧大脑的颞中回（MTG）、颞上回（STG）和后扣带回皮层（PCC）中显示出灰质体积减少（GMV）。此外，相关性分析表明，在所有参与者中，CFMT 分数与 MTG、STG 和 PCC 的 GMV 呈正相关，而对每个组的单独分析发现，失歌症患者的 CFMT 分数与 PCC 的 GMV 呈正相关。这些发现表明，面孔识别与人类大脑中广泛分布的微观结构网络有关，并且 PCC 在失歌症患者的音高识别和面孔识别中都起着重要作用。此外，先天性失歌症和面孔失认症等神经发育障碍可能具有共同的神经基础。
