Launay, J; (2008) Congenital amusia: Is there a group with selective rhythm impairments? Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Congenital amusia has been described as a pitch specific, musical processing deficit. This study aims to identify a subset of this group who suffer from congenital rhythm processing problems, with preserved pitch processing. It uses the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia to select this group. A tapping task is then used in order to establish how a rhythm perception deficit might affect rhythm production skills. This task involves spontaneous tapping, synchronization with auditory stimuli, and a continuation task. It uses changes in rhythm and pitch for increased complexity across trials and to establish patterns of deficits across the dysrhythmic group. 3 dysrhythmic subjects were identified and 38 controls were also tested. No difference was found between the groups in the spontaneous and continuation conditions. Large amounts of variance in the control data made it hard to compare the two groups effectively in the synchronization task. One observed difference was that dysrhythmics tapped at a different hierarchical level from controls when attempting to synchronise with complex rhythms. The study did successfully identify a small group of dysrhythmics and was able to draw some inferences about the patterns of their deficit.

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