Sixty-one people participated in the study 20 with absolute pitch,
20 trained musicians who do not have absolute pitch and 20 who had
little or no musical training. One musician was an outlier, and was not
included in the study results. This musician had what is known as
quasi-absolute pitch absolute pitch for only one note, middle C and
could identify most notes relative to that.
Those with perfect pitch identified randomly generated tones with 100
percent accuracy. The outlier was about 67 percent accurate. The rest
of the participants did as well as random chance, about 8 percent
accurate.
All participated in functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans. The information captured
there was mapped and analyzed with computer modeling.
A bit of anatomy may be helpful here. The brain processes sound in a
small area called the auditory cortex. It is found along both sides of
your head, just above your ears, in what is known as the temporal lobes.
The auditory cortex has regions of its own and scientists have
plotted out tonotopic maps, meaning that the neurons are laid out in
order of their best frequency response. These maps show where specific
frequencies are processed within these regions.
The researchers found that all participants with perfect pitch had
larger auditory cortical areas than the others. Other trained musicians
and those in the control group had cortical areas that did not differ
much in size from each other.
One surprise was that the larger auditory cortical areas were not
used for sharper tuning, as researchers expected. Rather, those with
perfect pitch used that extra territory for tuning a broader range of
frequencies. Those kinds of measurements had never been captured before.
They also found evidence that argues against an often-discussed
critical period theory that perfect pitch is possible only in people
whose musical training begins before the age of 7. Several participants
with perfect pitch had not started musical instruction until their late
teens or even early 20s, McKetton said. The vast majority of musicians
do not have perfect pitch despite thousands of hours of training and
practice.
It is not known if someone with zero musical training could have
perfect pitch. Certainly, they couldnt call out the notes if they have
had no music theory. But it might be possible to test their ability to
identify frequencies, Schneider said. That was not part of this
research.
There is a range of capacity, too. People with perfect pitch can
identify the note almost instantly and some of them can also identify
the frequency. For example, they could say A4 the note A in the
fourth octave and they could also say 440 Hertz, the precise
modern-day frequency for that note.
There are other fascinating twists to all of this.
When Schneiders 14-year-old son, Felix, heard about this research he
told his dad he had perfect pitch. When Schneider tested him, though,
he got every note wrong until they adjusted the results for someone
who plays the trumpet, as Felix does. Trumpets are tuned one whole step
differently than pianos. So playing a C on the trumpet is the same as
playing a B-flat on the piano. When Felix made that one-step
correction in his answers, he was 100 percent accurate. He has perfect
pitch.
In another study McKetton did, a 70-year-old man said he had perfect
pitch but got every note wrong when he was tested. She then noticed that
all of his responses were one tone off. The perceptual change in pitch
may have been due to age-related changes in the stiffness of the basilar
membrane within the cochlea of the inner ear, she said. When she asked
him to adjust his answers by one tone, he was 100 percent accurate.
Most musicians who do not have
perfect pitch do have relative pitch, Schneider said. They can tell you a
note or an interval based on its relation to another note. McKetton has
that ability herself.
A bane and a blessing
Perfect pitch is rare, but its not always a wonderful gift. Off-key
voices and out-of-tune instruments can drive these human tuning forks to
distraction.
When a group starts singing Happy Birthday, for example, Krall, the
UD junior from Hockessin, Delaware, usually takes a pass. The
discordant mixture of keys that usually emerges makes his ears curl.
He is not a music major but enjoys making music. A tenor, he sings with the Golden Blues, UDs a cappella group.
Krall said he had no idea what perfect pitch was until he was a
teenager and heard his girlfriend singing a Fleetwood Mac song. He
commented on her range and named the note that especially impressed him.
She asked if he had perfect pitch and he shrugged. Who knows?
The choir teacher later put him to the test with her piano and pronounced him pitch perfect.
On Feb. 5, Krall visited CBBI where Schneider tested him, using
computer software to produce a random series of notes, with a wide range
of frequencies.
He answered fluently.
C-sharp 4.
A 4.
D 3.
A-flat 4.
E.
And on and on, one note after another, from 40 Hertz to 8,000 Hertz spot on, 100 percent accurate, perfect pitch.
Hes got it, Schneider said.
And if Krall didnt seem terribly impressed with himself well, why would he? He used to think everyone had this ability.
Thats how it works, Schneider said. If you look at a color you
can say blue. And thats the same thing hes doing with sound. He has
the same association with sound that you would with color.
Notable brain power.
Article by Beth Miller; photos by Kathy F. Atkinson; video by Lisa Tossey and Paul Puglisi
