Deficits

in Music Perception

Music perception depends on precise coordination between the ears, auditory pathways, and multiple brain regions.

Types of Deficits in Music Perception

Congenital and AcquireAmusia

Absolute Pitch Deficits

Beat Deafness

“Tone Deafness”

Congenital Amusia

Lifelong difficulty perceiving small differences in pitch.

Poor ability to detect out-of-tune notes

  • Impaired melody discrimination

  • Problems with singing in tune

  • Normal speech perception and normal hearing

Acquired Amusia

Not developmental. It happens after brain injury

Different regions support different parts of music perception:

If right temporal lobe is damaged:

  • Poor pitch discrimination

  • Difficulty recognizing melodies

If right inferior frontal regions are damaged:

  • Problems with musical syntax (structure of melodies)

  • Difficulty holding melodies in memory

If damage is bilateral:

  • Severe, widespread impairment

  • May include problems identifying sounds in general (auditory agnosia)

Beat Deafness

What it looks like

  • Cannot clap or walk in time with music

  • Beat feels “invisible” even when the person tries

  • Rhythm reproduction is inconsistent

  • Difficulty predicting “when the next beat will happen”

What is still normal

  • Language

  • Pitch perception

  • General hearing

Neural explanation

Beat perception relies on a timing network