Absolute Pitch in Williams Syndrome

Absolute pitch is reported to occur in 1 out of 10,000 persons, usually those trained in music before age 6. We demonstrate that the five individuals we tested, who have Williams syndrome, a condition caused by a microdeletion of about 20 genes in the q11.23 region of one of their two chromosomes number seven, possess near ceiling levels of absolute pitch despite their limited cognitive abilities. With these individuals, we also describe our preliminary findings on relative pitch, transposition, and retention. We discuss the possibilities that (1) the incidence of absolute pitch among individuals with Williams syndrome is higher than that found in the general population and (2) the normal early childhood critical period of absolute pitch acquisition may be extended in individuals with Williams syndrome.

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Absolute pitch learning in adults speaking non-tonal languages

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021820935776 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 73 (11) ◽

pp. 1908-1920

Author(s):

Yetta Kwailing Wong ◽

Vince SH Ngan ◽

Leo YT Cheung ◽

Alan C-N Wong

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Musical Training ◽

Absolute Pitch ◽

Tonal Language ◽

Relative Pitch ◽

External Reference ◽

Small Pitch ◽

Early Childhood Experience ◽

Language Exposure

Absolute pitch (AP) refers to labelling individual pitches in the absence of external reference. A widely endorsed theory regards AP as a privileged ability enjoyed by selected few with rare genetic makeup and musical training starting in early childhood. However, recent evidence showed that even adults can learn AP, and some can attain a performance level comparable to natural AP possessors. These training studies involved native tonal language speakers, whose acquisition of AP might be facilitated by tonal language exposure during early childhood. In this study, adults speaking non-tonal languages went through AP training that was 20-hr long, computerised and personalised. Performance on average improved, which was accompanied by enhanced working memory for tones, whereas relative pitch judgement and sensitivity to small pitch differences remained unchanged. Notably, two out of 13 learned to label all 12 pitches within an octave, with accuracy and response time comparable to natural AP possessors. Overall, the findings suggest that tonal language exposure is not a prerequisite for AP learning in adulthood. The understanding of the origin of AP would benefit from considering the role of lifelong learning instead of focusing only on early childhood experience.

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Absolute pitch can be learned by some adults

10.1101/325050 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Stephen C. Van Hedger ◽

Shannon L.M Heald ◽

Howard C. Nusbaum

Keyword(s):

Critical Period ◽

Training Session ◽

Absolute Pitch ◽

Classification Performance ◽

Childhood Development ◽

Musical Note ◽

Perceptual Training ◽

Relative Pitch ◽

Improving Accuracy ◽

Positive Results

AbstractAbsolute pitch (AP), the rare ability to name any musical note without the aid of a reference note, is thought to develop in an early critical period of development. Although recent research has shown that adults can improve AP abilities in a single training session, the best learners still did not achieve note classification performance comparable to performance of a genuine AP possessor. Here, we demonstrate that genuine AP levels of performance can be trained in eight weeks for some adults, with the best learner passing all measures of AP ability after training and retaining this knowledge for at least four months after training. Alternative explanations of these positive results, such as improving accuracy through adopting a slower, relative pitch strategy, are not supported based on joint analyses of response time and accuracy. The post-training AP assessments were extensive, totaling 204 notes taken from eight different timbres and spanning over seven octaves. These results clearly demonstrate that explicit perceptual training in some adults can lead to AP performance that is behaviorally indistinguishable from AP that results from childhood development. Implications for theories of AP acquisition are discussed.

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Associations between behaviour problems and verbal and nonverbal cognitive abilities and disabilities in early childhood

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry ◽

10.1111/1469-7610.00051 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 43 (5) ◽

pp. 619-633 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Robert Plomin ◽

Thomas S. Price ◽

Thalia C. Eley ◽

Philip S. Dale ◽

Jim Stevenson

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Behaviour Problems

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Learning the ““Special Note””: Evidence for a Critical Period for Absolute Pitch Acquisition

Music Perception An Interdisciplinary Journal ◽

10.1525/mp.2003.21.1.119 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 119-127 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

FRANK A. RUSSO ◽

DEBORAH L. WINDELL ◽

LOLA L. CUDDY

Keyword(s):

Critical Period ◽

Strong Support ◽

Absolute Pitch ◽

Identification Accuracy ◽

Single Tone ◽

The Third

Children (3––6 years old) and adults were trained for 6 weeks to identify a single tone, C5. Test sessions, held at the end of each week, had participants identify C5 within a set of seven alternative tones. By the third week of training, identification accuracy of children 5––6 years old surpassed the accuracies of children 3––4 years old and adults. Combined with an analysis of perceptual strategies, the data provide strong support for a critical period for absolute pitch acquisition. Received July 12, 2003, accepted August 1,2003

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Early childhood — a critical period for obesity prevention

Nature Reviews Endocrinology ◽

10.1038/s41574-018-0131-0 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 5-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Louise A. Baur ◽

Sarah P. Garnett

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Obesity Prevention ◽

Critical Period

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Absolute Pitch and Relative Pitch in Music Students in the East and the West

Music Perception An Interdisciplinary Journal ◽

10.1525/mp.2018.36.2.135 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 36 (2) ◽

pp. 135-155 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ken'ichi Miyazaki ◽

Andrzej Rakowski ◽

Sylwia Makomaska ◽

Cong Jiang ◽

Minoru Tsuzaki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Music Education ◽

East Asian ◽

Absolute Pitch ◽

Music Students ◽

Asian Countries ◽

Japanese Students ◽

Relative Pitch ◽

Cultural Conditions ◽

The Usa ◽

Musical Context

Absolute pitch (AP)—an ability to identify an isolated pitch without musical context—is commonly believed to be a valuable ability for musicians. However, relative pitch (RP)—an ability to perceive pitch relations—is more important in most musical contexts. In this study, music students in East Asian and Western countries (Japan, China, Poland, Germany, and USA) were tested on AP and RP abilities. In the AP test, 60 single tones were presented in a quasirandom order over a five-octave range. In the RP test, ascending musical intervals from 1 to 11 semitones were presented in four different keys. Participants wrote down note names in the AP test and scale-degree names or musical interval names in the RP test. The conservatory-level Japanese students showed the highest AP performance and more than half of them were classified as accurate AP possessors, but only 10% were classified as accurate RP possessors. In contrast, only a small percentage of participants from Poland, Germany, and the USA were identified as accurate AP possessors, whereas many more were accurate RP possessors. Participants from China were typically intermediate on both measures. These noticeable contrasts between AP and RP performance in different countries suggest influences of the underlying socio-cultural conditions, presumably relating to music education. Given the importance of RP in music, the results suggest that more emphasis should be place on RP training, particularly in East Asian countries.

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Neural patterns reveal single-trial information on absolute pitch and relative pitch perception

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.06.030 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 200 ◽

pp. 132-141 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Simon Leipold ◽

Marielle Greber ◽

Silvano Sele ◽

Lutz Jäncke

Keyword(s):

Absolute Pitch ◽

Pitch Perception ◽

Single Trial ◽

Relative Pitch

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The Long-Term Impact of Preschool Health and Nutrition on Education

Food and Nutrition Bulletin ◽

10.1177/15648265050262s210 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 26 (2_suppl2) ◽

pp. S193-S201 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Matthew Jukes

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Gender Equity ◽

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Malaria Prevention ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Health And Nutrition ◽

Nutrition Supplementation ◽

Infancy And Early Childhood ◽

Long Term Impact

Malnutrition and infectious diseases in infancy and early childhood have an impact on the cognitive development of children in developing countries. The long-term effects of these diseases are less well understood. A number of studies relate early malnutrition, iron deficiency, and malaria infection to poor cognitive abilities in the school-age years. The long-term effect of randomized interventions in early childhood has been evaluated for nutrition supplementation and psychosocial stimulation of malnourished children and for malaria prevention in a community cohort. The evidence suggests that improving the health and nutrition of young children can improve their subsequent chances of attending school, the gender equity of education access, and performance of children once at school.

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