|
MATCHING SENTENCE ENDINGS When people are deaf’ to music
Music
is a universal human instinct, but there is variation in musical competence.
Some individuals are "tone deaf," unable to sing, discriminate
between tones, or recognize familiar melodies. This disorder can occur after
brain damage, but recent research aims to discover the cause of congenital
amusia, which is not associated with brain damage, hearing problems, or lack
of exposure to music. Dr.
Isabelie Peretz's research reveals that amusia is more complex than pitch distinction.
Amusia can distinguish distant pitches but cannot differentiate intervals
smaller than a half step on the Western diatonic scale. Amusics perform worse
at singing and tapping rhythms with melodies compared to non-amusics.The most
fascinating aspect of amusia is how specific to music it is. Music
and language are independent, with people with brain damage in language areas
still able to sing despite speech impairment. Amusics, who show deficiencies
in pitch recognition, can discriminate between words in tonal languages and
recognize melody mood, speaker identification, and environmental sounds due
to linguistic cues in speech. Recent
research suggests that amusia is primarily caused by hearing impairment,
rather than higher processing of melodies. The temporal lobes, the primary
auditory cortex, are believed to be responsible for musical disability.
However, new studies suggest that deficits in amusics are located outside the
auditory cortex. Brain scans show that amusics overreact to large tones, indicating
that the deficits are not in the auditory cortex. Peretz's
neuropsychology research suggests amusia is a disorder, but neurobiology
student is skeptical. While studies show significant differences between
amusics and normal brains, the question of normality arises. Every trait,
including musical ability, exists on a continuum, and basic musical ability
is not abnormal. Music
is culturally valued in most countries and may have been a survival factor in
human history. However, it's not being selected for on an evolutionary scale
anymore. Darwin believed music was adaptive for finding a mate. Amusia
is a unique form of innate musical ability, but its classification as a
disability requires further research to determine if it is detrimental, and
if no disadvantages are found, it is no more a disability. |
Question
1-5 Complete
each sentence with the correct ending, A-H below Write
the correct letter, A-H in boxes 10-14
on your answer sheet 1. The reason why some
people are born with amusia is 2. One of the
difficulties amusia experience is 3. For amusia,
discrimination of meaning in speech is 4. Certain reactions in
the brain of an amusia are 5. Darwin thought that
music was
A. an inability to hear
when spoken language rises and falls. B. a lover-finding
adaptation. C. an inability to
follow the beat of music. D. not a problem. E. not yet well
understood. F. a result of injury to
the mother. G. outside the auditory
cortex. H. associated with intelligence. |
