Absolute pitch: A special group of ears

Drayna, Dennis

doi:10.1073/pnas.0707287104

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Nonetheless, documented Asian advantages on low-level (e.g., reaction time) and high-level (e.g., IQ) measures of intellectual function (Rushton & Jensen, 2005) allow for the possibility of genetic contributions to group differences in pitch labeling. Evidence of a normal distribution for pitch memory (Schellenberg & Trehub, 2003) and a bimodal distribution for AP (Athos et al, 2007) raises the possibility that a relatively isolated gene (Drayna, 2007) could underlie the pitch-labeling component of AP. Indeed, genetic differences between ethnic or racial groups are much more plausible for Mendelian traits (e.g., male pattern baldness, eye color), with dominant and recessive alleles, than they are for complex, polygenic traits such as intelligence (Sternberg, Grigorenko, & Kidd, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Is There an Asian Advantage for Pitch Memory?

Schellenberg

Trehub

2008

Music Perception

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ABSOLUTE PITCH (AP) IS THE ABILITY TO IDENTIFY ORproduce a musical note in isolation. As traditionally defined, AP requires accurate pitch memory as well as knowledge of note names. The incidence of AP is higher in Asia than it is in North America. We used a task with no naming requirements to examine pitch memory among Canadian 9-to 12-year-olds of Asian (Chinese) or non-Asian (European) heritage. On each trial, children heard two versions of a 5-s excerpt from a familiar recording, one of which was shifted upward or downward in pitch. They were asked to identify the excerpt at the original pitch. The groups performed comparably, and knowledge of a tone language did not affect performance. Nonetheless, Asians performed better on a test of academic achievement. These results provide no support for the contribution of genetics or tone-language use to cross-cultural differences in pitch memory.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Is There an Asian Advantage for Pitch Memory?

Schellenberg

Trehub

2008

Music Perception

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“…D. Ward, 1999;Zatorre, 2003). Therefore, although we do not intend to deny the role of genes in AP acquisition, the current results suggest that any relevant genetic dispositions that enable AP acquisition should be a lot more prevalent in the population than previously assumed (Baharloo et al, 1998;Drayna, 2007).…”

Section: Did the Training Lead To 'Genuine Ap'?mentioning

confidence: 57%

“…How can we explain the development of AP in the 'AP possessors'? One influential theory suggests that AP develops if two prerequisites are fulfilled (Bachem, 1940;Baharloo, Johnston, Service, Gitschier, & Freimer, 1998;Chin, 2003;Drayna, 2007;Levitin & Rogers, 2005;Ross, Olson, Marks, & Gore, 2004;Takeuchi & Hulse, 1993;Trainor, 2005;Zatorre, 2003). The first prerequisite is the rare genetic disposition to AP.…”

Section: The Role Of Genes and The Critical Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is reported that AP runs in families, as siblings of 'AP possessors' are also more likely to be 'AP possessors' (about 14 -48% of the 'AP possessors' reported to have a sibling or first-degree relatives that was also an 'AP possessor'; Baharloo et al, 1998;Baharloo, Service, Risch, Gitschier, & Freimer, 2000;Gregersen, Kowalsky, Kohn, & Marvin, 1999, 2001. AP is often considered a relatively 'clean' cognitive phenotype (Baharloo et al, 2000;Gregersen et al, 2001), and some proposed that AP may be subserved by a single gene (Drayna, 2007).…”

Section: The Role Of Genes and The Critical Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is it impossible to acquire absolute pitch in adulthood?

Wong

Lui

Yip

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Absolute pitch (AP) refers to the rare ability to name the pitch of a tone without external reference. It is widely believed that acquiring AP in adulthood is impossible, since AP is only for the selected few with rare genetic makeup and early musical training. In three experiments, we trained adults to name pitches for 12 to 40 hours. After training, 14% of the participants (6 out of 43) were able to name twelve pitches at 90% accuracy or above, with semitone errors considered incorrect. This performance level was comparable to that of realworld 'AP possessors'. AP training showed classic characteristics of perceptual learning, including performance enhancement, generalization of learning and sustained improvement for at least one to three months. Exploratory extrapolation analyses suggest that 39.5% and 58.1% of the participants would acquire AP if the training lasted for 60 and 180 hours respectively, suggesting the potential for the majority of the participants to acquire AP. We demonstrate that AP continues to be learnable in adulthood. The extent to which one acquires AP may thus be better explained by the amount and type of perceptual experience.

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“…Although whether the extraordinary ability of AP is genetically determined or develops dependently on environmental variables still remains a controversial issue (Levitin and Zatorre, 2003; Drayna, 2007), there is a general consensus that musical training in childhood is important for its acquisition (Zatorre, 2003). Recently, neurophysiological effects of such musical experiences have been investigated using neuroimaging methods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancement of Speech-Relevant Auditory Acuity in Absolute Pitch Possessors

Masataka¹

2011

Front. Psychology

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Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to identify the frequency or musical name of a specific tone, or to identify a tone without comparing it with any objective reference tone. While AP has recently been shown to be associated with morphological changes and neurophysiological adaptations in the planum temporale, a cortical area in the brain involved in speech perception processes, no behavioral evidence of speech-relevant auditory acuity in any AP possessors has hitherto been reported. In order to seek such evidence, in the present study, 15 professional musicians with AP and 14 without AP, all of whom had acquired Japanese as their first language, were asked to identify isolated Japanese syllables as quickly as possible after these syllables were presented auditorily. When the mean latency to the syllable identification was compared, it was significantly shorter in AP possessors than in non-AP possessors whether the presented syllables were those used as Japanese labels representing the 7 tones constituting an octave or not. The latency to hear the stimuli per se did not differ according to whether the participants were AP possessors or not. The results indicate the possibility that possessing AP provides one with extraordinarily enhanced acuity to individual syllables per se as fundamental units of a segmented word in the speech stream.

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Absolute pitch: A special group of ears

Cited by 15 publications

References 7 publications

Is There an Asian Advantage for Pitch Memory?

Is There an Asian Advantage for Pitch Memory?

Is it impossible to acquire absolute pitch in adulthood?

Enhancement of Speech-Relevant Auditory Acuity in Absolute Pitch Possessors

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