17 research outputs found
Failure to apply signal detection theory to the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia may misdiagnose amusia
This article considers a signal detection theory (SDT) approach to evaluation of performance on the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA). One hundred fifty-five individuals completed the original binary response version of the MBEA (n = 62) or a confidence rating version (MBEA-C; n = 93). Confidence ratings afforded construction of empirical receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves and derivation of bias-free performance measures against which we compared the standard performance metric, proportion correct (PC), and an alternative signal detection metric, dââ˛. Across the board, PC was tainted by response bias and underestimated performance as indexed by Az , a nonparametric ROC-based performance measure. Signal detection analyses further revealed that some individuals performing worse than the standard PC-based cutoff for amusia diagnosis showed large response biases. Given that PC is contaminated by response bias, this suggests the possibility that categorizing individuals as having amusia or not, using a PC-based cutoff, may inadvertently misclassify some individuals with normal perceptual sensitivity as amusic simply because they have large response biases. In line with this possibility, a comparison of amusia classification using dââ˛- and PC-based cutoffs showed potential misclassification of 33% of the examined cases
Revising the diagnosis of congenital amusia with the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia
This article presents a critical survey of the prevalent usage of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA; Peretz et al., 2003) to assess congenital amusia, a neuro-developmental disorder that has been claimed to be present in 4% of the population (Kalmus and Fry, 1980). It reviews and discusses the current usage of the MBEA in relation to cut-off scores, number of used subtests, manner of testing, and employed statistics, as these vary in the literature. Furthermore, data are presented from a large-scale experiment with 228 German undergraduate students who were assessed with the MBEA and a comprehensive questionnaire. This experiment tested the difference between scores that were obtained in a web-based study (at participantsâ homes) and those obtained under laboratory conditions with a computerized version of the MBEA. In addition to traditional statistical procedures, the data were evaluated using Signal Detection Theory (SDT; Green and Swets, 1966), taking into consideration the individualâs ability to discriminate and their response bias. Results show that using SDT for scoring instead of proportion correct offers a bias-free and normally distributed measure of discrimination ability. It is also demonstrated that a diagnosis based on an average score leads to cases of misdiagnosis. The prevalence of congenital amusia is shown to depend highly on the statistical criterion that is applied as cut-off score and on the number of subtests that is considered for the diagnosis. In addition, three different subtypes of amusics were found in our sample. Lastly, significant differences between the web-based and the laboratory group were found, giving rise to questions about the validity of web-based experimentation
Web-based Testing of Congenital Amusia with the <i>Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia</i>
Untwisting amusia:What behavior, brain waves and genetic underpinnings reveal about perception in congenital amusia
Word stress perception by congenital amusics
Congenital Amusia is a developmental disorder that is defined by diffi- culties with the perception of pitch and rhythm. While it used to be described as a disorder of musical pitch perception, recent publications have shown that congeni- tal amusia also affects linguistic pitch perception. In this chapter we report the first study of word stress processing by congenital amusics. We designed a behav- ioral identification task and a mismatch negativity study using German minimal stress pairs as basis for our stimuli. We considered the acoustic parameters funda- mental frequency (pitch), duration, intensity and spectral slope. Behavioral results surprisingly revealed no pitch processing difficulties for word stress in the amusic group in comparison to controls, and amusics also showed a better usage of dura- tional cues. The electrophysiological results revealed that amusics consistently have an MMN, though it is smaller than that of controls. The present results war- rant further investigation of the use of linguistic cues by congenital amusics
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Impaired emotional processing of chords in congenital amusia: electrophysiological and behavioral evidence
This study investigated whether individuals with congenital amusia, a neurogenetic disorder of musical pitch perception, were able to process musical emotions in single chords either automatically or consciously. In Experiments 1 and 2, we used a cross-modal affective priming paradigm to elicit automatic emotional processing through ERPs, in which target facial expressions were preceded by either affectively congruent or incongruent chords with a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 200 msec. Results revealed automatic emotional processing of major/minor triads (Experiment 1) and consonant/dissonant chords (Experiment 2) in controls, who showed longer reaction times and increased N400 for incongruent than congruent trials, while amusics failed to exhibit such a priming effect at both behavioral and electrophysiological levels. In Experiment 3, we further examined conscious emotional evaluation of the same chords in amusia. Results showed that amusics were unable to consciously differentiate the emotions conveyed by major and minor chords and by consonant and dissonant chords, as compared with controls. These findings suggest the impairment in automatic and conscious emotional processing of music in amusia. The implications of these findings in relation to musical emotional processing are discussed
Auditory imagery in congenital amusia
Congenital amusia is a neurogenetic disorder affecting various aspects of music and speech processing. Although perception and auditory imagery in the general population may share mechanisms, it is not known whether previously documented perceptual impairments in amusia are coupled with difficulties in imaging auditory objects. We employed the Bucknell Auditory Imagery Scale (BAIS) to assess participantsâ self-perceived voluntary imagery and a short earworm questionnaire to gauge their subjective experience of involuntary musical imagery. A total of 32 participants with amusia and 34 matched controls, recruited based on their performance on the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA), filled out the questionnaires in their own time. The earworm scores of amusic participants were not statistically significantly different from those of controls. By contrast, their scores on vividness and control of auditory imagery were significantly lower relative to controls. Overall, results suggest that the presence of amusia may not have an adverse effect on generating involuntary musical imageryâat the level of self-reportâbut still significantly reduces the individualâs self-rated voluntary imagery of musical, vocal, and environmental sounds. We discuss the findings in the light of previous research on explicit musical judgments and implicit engagement with music, while also touching on some statistical power considerations
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To B-Sharp or Not to B-Sharp: Tone Deafness in the Modern World
The idea of tone deafness is commonly-referenced in both pop culture and the
professional music industry. Tone deafness, or amusia, has been moderately
studied as a cognitive disorder resulting from brain damage, but has rarely been
examined as a cultural phenomenon.
In this thesis, I examine current literature on amusia, conduct a pilot experimental
investigation to ascertain the effect of active listening on congenital amusia, and
finally make an argument for the definition and treatment of tone deafness based
on the cultural significance of music.Musi
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Abnormal neural responses to harmonic syntactic structures in congenital amusia
Harmonic syntactic structures are organized hierarchically through local and long-distance dependencies. The present study investigated whether the processing of harmonic syntactic structures is impaired in congenital amusia, a neurodevelopmental disorder of pitch perception. Harmonic sequences containing two phrases were used as stimuli, in which the first phrase ended with a half cadence and the second with an authentic cadence. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the ending chord in the authentic cadence to be either syntactically regular or irregular. Sixteen amusics and 16 controls judged the expectedness of these chords while their EEG waveforms were recorded. In comparison to the regular endings, irregular endings elicited an ERAN, an N5 and a late positive component in controls but not in amusics, indicating that amusics were impaired in perceiving harmonic syntactic structures induced by local dependencies. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the half cadence of the harmonic sequences to examine the processing of harmonic syntactic structures induced by long-distance dependencies. An ERAN-like response and an N5 were elicited in controls but not in amusics, suggesting that amusics were impaired in processing long-distance syntactic dependencies. Furthermore, for controls, the neural processing of local and long-distance syntactic dependencies was correlated in the late (as indexed by the N5) but not in the early stage. These findings indicate that amusics are impaired in the detection of syntactic violations and subsequent harmonic integration. The implications of these findings in terms of hierarchical music-syntactic processing are discussed
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Neural differences between the processing of musical meaning conveyed by direction of pitch change and natural music in congenital amusia
Music is a unique communication system for human beings. Iconic musical meaning is one dimension of musical meaning, which emerges from musical information resembling sounds of objects, qualities of objects, or qualities of abstract concepts. The present study investigated whether congenital amusia, a disorder of musical pitch perception, impacts processing of iconic musical meaning. With a cross-modal semantic priming paradigm, target images were primed by semantically congruent or incongruent musical excerpts, which were characterized by direction (upward or downward) of pitch change (Experiment 1), or were selected from natural music (Experiment 2). Twelve Mandarin-speaking amusics and 12 controls performed a recognition (implicit) and a semantic congruency judgment (explicit) task while their EEG waveforms were recorded. Unlike controls, amusics failed to elicit an N400 effect when musical meaning was represented by direction of pitch change, regardless of the nature of the tasks (implicit versus explicit). However, the N400 effect in response to musical meaning in natural musical excerpts was observed for both groups in both types of tasks. These results indicate that amusics are able to process iconic musical meaning through multiple acoustic cues in natural musical excerpts, but not through direction of pitch change. This is the first study to investigate the processing of musical meaning in congenital amusia, providing evidence in support of the âmelodic contour deafness hypothesisâ with regard to iconic musical meaning processing in this disorder