title: An investigation of spatial representation of pitch in individuals with congenital amusia.
abstract: Spatial representation of pitch plays a central role in auditory processing. However, it is unknown whether impaired auditory processing is associated with impaired pitch-space mapping. Experiment 1 examined spatial representation of pitch in individuals with congenital amusia using a stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) task. For amusic and non-amusic participants, pitch classification was faster and more accurate when correct responses involved a physical action that was spatially congruent with the pitch height of the stimulus than when it was incongruent. However, this spatial representation of pitch was not as stable in amusic individuals, revealed by slower response times when compared with control individuals. One explanation is that the SRC effect in amusics reflects a linguistic association, requiring additional time to link pitch height and spatial location. To test this possibility, Experiment 2 employed a colour-classification task. Participants judged colour while ignoring a concurrent pitch by pressing one of two response keys positioned vertically to be congruent or incongruent with the pitch. The association between pitch and space was found in both groups, with comparable response times in the two groups, suggesting that amusic individuals are only slower to respond to tasks involving explicit judgments of pitch.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Macquarie University , Sydney , NSW , Australia.|b ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders , Sydney , NSW , Australia.
authors.forename: Xuejing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: b ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders , Sydney , NSW , Australia.|c Department of Cognitive Science , Macquarie University , Sydney , NSW , Australia.
authors.forename: Yanan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Macquarie University , Sydney , NSW , Australia.|b ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders , Sydney , NSW , Australia.
authors.forename: William Forde
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001308:Auditory Perceptual Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Congenital amusia; Pitch perception; Spatial representation; Stimulus–response compatibility effect