Discover Congenital Amusia in Thailand

Abstract

This study was designed to screen for Thai-speaking individuals with the classic presentation of congenital amusia. Congenital amusia is an observed neurological phenomenon defined as an inability or difficulty of the brain to process and produce musical sounds. Individuals who have congenital amusia are unable to recognize or hum, sing, or whistle familiar songs, even if they have normal audiometry and above-average intellectual and memory skills. Congenital amusia is observed from birth and is not associated with a physical injury or damage to the brain. The study of congenital amusia reveals the methodology used for screening this neurological condition is a digitally form of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA), which has served as the standard prescribed method of assessment since its inception by Isabelle Peretz in the 2002 pilot study of amusia. Initial hypotheses suggested that due to the fine-pitch granularity of Thai tonal language, there would be a lower rate of discovery for congenital amusia in a Thai-speaking population than in the original English- and French-speaking sample populations. Preliminary results support the initial hypothesis by revealing no discoveries of congenital amusia in the small number of Thai-speaking population sample.