Tone Deafness Is Real: Here's Why Some People Struggle With Musical Pitches

There are some people who especially struggle with comprehending and matching musical pitch, eventually earning the label "tone deaf." Interestingly, as a matter of fact, tone deafness is a real condition.

Tone Deafness: a Neurological Disorder

Tone deafness is actually a neurological disorder known as amusia. This condition is said to affect roughly 4% of the population.

However, not everyone who falls short of musical skills has this condition.

The severity of amusia could vary in severity. It could range from mild difficulties with melody recognition to a total inability to differentiate musical notes.

According to Isabelle Perets, a psychology professor from the University of Montreal who specializes in music neurocognition, the condition is hereditary for most people who suffer from it.

Amusia Is Mostly Hereditary

Peretz explains that the majority of amusics is born in such a way. Half of their sisters and brothers are also born that way as well, due to how congenital amusia is hereditary. Peretz adds that an environment with impoverished musicality is not apparently the issue.

Children who are as young as eight years old have exhibited amusia, showing the same abnormal profile as adults who are amusic.

It is also possible for some people to develop amusia later on. This usually results from serious brain trauma or stroke. Such a case is called acquired amusia and is a less common form.

How Amusia Works

Karen Wise, a research fellow from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, explains that one of the primary consequences that come with having congenital amusia is that one has a higher likelihood of struggling with music recognition, without song lyrics, of something that was heard before. However, different people may experience amusia in different ways.

Wise explains that the most common amusia form is pitch-based. A small study from 2002, involving 11 adults who had musical impairments, also supports this. It suggests that amusia that is congenital is linked to severe deficiencies when it comes to processing the variations in pitches.

The research fellow also adds that several amusics have elevated perception thresholds of pitch. Hence, the pitch differences have to be wider for them to be able to perceive it. They could also struggle with the perceptions between pitch changes that are upward and downward. They also do not perceive musical patterns that are made by musical note sequences.

There are also some studies that show that individuals with pitch-based amusia also experience difficulties in processing melodic data within speech. However, when it comes to spoken communication, intonation is not the sole factor that people rely on. Because of this, the condition could be less noticeable in daily life.

Some people are aware of their own state of amusia, though others could live their entire lives not knowing that they have tone deafness. This is due to how the condition could have different ways of manifesting and degrees of severity.

Graham Welch, the chair of the Society for Education, Music, and Psychology Research in the UK, also explains that there appears to be a continuum for amusia.

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