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Updated: Oct 19, 2025

Uncovering Beat Deafness: Detecting Rhythm Disorders with Synchronized Finger Tapping and Perceptual Timing Tasks
Published on: March 16, 2015
Congenital amusia-pathology of musical disorder
Krzysztof Szyfter1, Jadwiga Wigowska-Sowińska2
1Institute of Human Genetics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Ul. Strzeszyńska 32, 60-479, Poznań, Poland. szyfkris@man.poznan.pl.
Abstract:
Amusia also known as tone deafness affects roughly 1.5% population. Congenital amusia appears from birth and lasts over life span. Usually, it is not associated with other diseases. Its link to hearing impairment has been definitively excluded. Neurobiological studies point to asymmetrical processing of musical signals in auditory cortex of left and right brain hemispheres. The finding was supported by discovering microlesions in the right-side gray matter. Because of its connection with asymmetry, amusia has been classified to disconnection syndromes. Alternatively to the neurobiological explanation of amusia background, an attention was turned to the significance of genetic factors. The studies done on relatives and twins indicated familial aggregation of amusia. Molecular genetic investigations linked amusia with deletion of 22q11.2 chromosome region. Until now no specific genes responsible for development of amusia were found.
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