The genetics of congenital amusia (tone deafness): a family-aggregation study.
Congenital amusia (commonly known as "tone deafness") is a lifelong impairment of music perception that affects 4% of the population. To estimate whether congenital amusia can be genetically transmitted, its prevalence was quantified by direct auditory testing of 71 members of 9 large families of amusic probands, as well as of 75 members of 10 control families. The results confirm that congenital amusia is expressed by a deficit in processing musical pitch but not musical time and also show that the pitch disorder has a hereditary component. In amusic families, 39% of first-degree relatives have the same cognitive disorder, whereas only 3% have it in the control families. The identification of multiplex families with a high relative risk of experiencing a musical pitch deficit ( lambda(s)=10.8; 95% confidence interval 8-13.5) enables the mapping of genetic loci for hereditary amusia.
Peretz
Isabelle
I
International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research, Montreal, Canada. isabelle.peretz@umontreal.ca
Cummings
Stéphanie
S
Dubé
Marie-Pierre
MP
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D003638:Deafness / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005820:Genetic Testing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D010375:Pedigree
Ann Hum Genet. 1980 May;43(4):369-82
7396411
Am J Hum Genet. 2000 Sep;67(3):755-8
10924408
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2003 Nov;999:58-75
14681118
Nature. 2000 Jun 15;405(6788):847-56
10866211
Psychol Sci. 2004 May;15(5):356-60
15102148
Psychol Bull. 2004 Nov;130(6):858-86
15535741
Hum Biol. 1998 Apr;70(2):297-324
9549241
Neuron. 2002 Jan 17;33(2):185-91
11804567
Science. 2001 Mar 9;291(5510):1969-72
11239158
Brain. 2006 Oct;129(Pt 10):2533-53
16845129
Nat Neurosci. 2003 Jul;6(7):692-5
12830161
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2001 Jun;930:153-65
11458826
J Neurosci. 2007 Nov 21;27(47):13028-32
18032676
Am J Med Genet. 2001 Jan 22;98(3):280-2
11169569
Brain. 2006 Oct;129(Pt 10):2562-70
16931534
Am J Hum Genet. 1990 Feb;46(2):222-8
2301392
Trends Cogn Sci. 2006 Jun;10(6):250-7
16675285
Brain. 2004 Apr;127(Pt 4):801-10
14985262
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2005 Dec;1060:311-24
16597781
Brain. 2002 Feb;125(Pt 2):238-51
11844725
Trends Cogn Sci. 2003 Aug;7(8):362-367
12907232
Nature. 1996 Sep 5;383(6595):29
8779711