Abstract
Congenital amusia, characterized by a severe problem in detecting anomalies in melodies, is a lifelong disorder that has been ascribed to an acoustical pitch deficit. In the present study, we investigated how the perception of a duration is altered when it is bounded by tones varying in pitch. The results show that temporal accuracy is impaired by pitch variations as small as a quarter of a semitone in control participants, whereas it is impaired only when pitch variations are increased to 4 semitones in congenital amusics. Furthermore, control participants associate intervals bounded by low- and high-pitched tones with long and short durations, respectively. Amusic participants do not make this connection, even with large pitch differences, pointing to a deficit in pitch—time integration. Thus, our results are consistent with the notion that congenital amusia is linked to a neurogenetic anomaly that impairs pitch processing, independently of task factors.
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This work was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, from a Canada Research Chair, and from the Human Frontier Science Program to I.P.
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Pfeuty, M., Peretz, I. Abnormal pitch—time interference in congenital amusia: Evidence from an implicit test. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 72, 763–774 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.3.763
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.72.3.763