Genetic Correlates of Musical Pitch Recognition in Humans

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The original DTT consisted of 26 short melodies ranging in length from 12 to 26 notes. Ten of these melodies were played normally whereas 16 contained tonal errors (7). Our updated test contained 8 of the original DTT melodies verbatim plus 18 new melodies for a total of 26 which ranged from 12 to 26 notes in length. Of these 9 were played correctly whereas 17 were distorted to produce errors. The errors were introduced according to the general rules used by Kalmus and Fry in their original DTT changing the pitch of two to nine notes generally within one or two semitones of the correct note and following the overall rise and fall of the normal melody. As in the original DTT all melodies were unaltered in rhythm and note order. A list of the melodies and the errors introduced is available at www.nidcd.nih.gov/intram/scientists/draynad.htm. The melodies were produced in pure tones with Mozart version 3.2 software (D. Webber Mozart Music Software Warrington UK) on a Macintosh G3 rendered more natural by the addition of overtones with Arnold's MIDI (Musical Instrumentation Digital Interface) player software. Ultra Recorder version 2.4 (E. J. Campbell EJ Enterprises ) was used to convert the MIDI files to AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) and after joining voice-over spoken instructions with SndSampler was recorded along with spoken instructions on a compact disk with Adaptec Toast 3.5.4. Copies of the updated DTT on a compact disk are available from the corresponding author. The updated DTT contained a preponderance of tunes played incorrectly (17/26) but our data suggest that whether a tune was played correctly or incorrectly did not significantly bias subjects' answers. Four tunes were played twice in the updated DTT; each was played correctly once and incorrectly once. Wrong answers on these eight questions were evenly distributed; 51% were correct melodies identified as incorrect and 49% were incorrect melodies identified as correct. Two methods were used to determine the role of long-term memory and cultural experience in the performance on the updated DTT. First subjects were asked whether they were familiar with each tune presented and familiarity was positively correlated with correct answers. We also developed a second test termed the International Tunes Test that consisted of 18 short melodies chosen to be unfamiliar to all subjects and that used both Western and non-Western tonal systems. Subjects were presented with each melody played correctly twice in succession and were then asked whether a third rendition played immediately thereafter was the same as or different than the first two playings. Six of the International Tunes were played correctly the third time whereas 12 were played incorrectly the third time. The distribution of scores on the International Test were indistinguishable from those on the updated DTT with no significant differences between males and females. Individuals' scores on the DTT and the International Test were highly correlated ( r = 0.71). These results suggest that performance on the updated DTT is not highly dependent on long-term musical memory.

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We thank the research nurses for skillful data collection and especially the twin volunteers who participated in this study. We also thank E. Balaban and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. Supported by NIH grant Z01-DC-00043-03 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (D.D. and A.M.). M.d.L. and H.S. are sponsored by the British Heart Foundation (grants FS/99010 and FS/99050). The Twins Research Unit gratefully acknowledges support from the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council Wellcome Trust British Heart Foundation and Gemini Genomics.