perfect pitch

A detailed Summary of perfect pitch


Perfect Pitch is the ability to identify any musical note without comparison to a reference note, and is a talent displayed in a small amount of people. What causes it is a question which has attracted a lot of attention lately. Scientists are asking them selves if it is a learned ability or are we given this unique talent through our genes. MRI scans in test have shown an enlarged portion of the brain present in individuals gifted the ability of perfect pitch. Scientists have been extensively surveying and testing musicians and non-musicians alike to place the key to this rare and special gift.

A research team from Dusseldorf, Germany believes they have located the physical basis of perfect pitch. The team led b y neurologist Gottfried Schlaug and Helmuth Steinmetz of Dusseldorf Heinrich Heine University report that the planum temporale is far larger on the left side than on the right side in professional musicians--especially in those who have perfect pitch (Nowak 616). Previous studies have suggested that the left hemispheric activation sites in the brain are seen during phonological, lexical, or semantic language task performance, while the right hemispheric preponderances are found for melodic an


d pitch perception (Schlaug 699). So Schlaug and his colleagues decided to examine the relative sizes of the left and right planum temporale in musicians' brains because previous work has shown that a leftward asymmetry there is associated with mental functions unique to humans, such as language (Blakeslee A16). Steinmetz believes that the neurological basis of music making is likely to be in the planum temporale since music may be "an even higher function" than language (qtd. Nowak 616).

Nowak, Rachel. "Brain Center Linked to Perfect Pitch." Science 267 (1995): 616.

Chatterjee, Camille. "One-Note Wonders." Psychology Today 31 (1998): 16.

Blakeslee, Sandra. "Scientists Find Place on Left Side of the Brain Where Perfect Pitch is heard." New York Times 3 Feb. 1995, natl. ed.: A16.

University of Californian News Archive. "Mozart's Gift of Perfect Pitch may not be so rare After All, According to New UC Sand Diego Study on Musical Perception." 1 November 1999. http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/dpitchdeutsch.htm. 29 February 2000.



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Approximate Word count = 932
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Music

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