Congenital amusia in childhood: A case study

Abstract

Here we describe the first documented case of congenital amusia in childhood. AS is a 10-year-old girl who was referred to us by her choir director for persisting difficulties in singing. We tested her with the child version of the Montreal Battery for the Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA) which confirmed AS’s severe problems with melodic and rhythmic discrimination and memory for melodies. The disorder appears to be limited to music since her audiometry as well as her intellectual and language skills are normal. Furthermore, the musical disorder is associated to a severe deficit in detecting small pitch changes. The electrical brain responses point to an anomaly in the early stages of auditory processing, such as reflected by an abnormal mismatch negativity (MMN) response to small pitch changes. In singing, AS makes more pitch than time errors. Thus, despite frequent and regular musical practice, AS’s profile is similar to the adult form of congenital amusia.