PEOPLE who struggle to distinguish musical notes have fewer brain connections in an area involved in language and speech.
They were already known to have abnormalities in brain areas responsible for perceiving and producing sounds. Now Psyche Loui of Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, have found that in tone-deaf volunteers, these areas are less well-connected than in people with normal sound perception (The Journal of Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1701-09.2009).
These brain connections are also used for speech and language, so "rehabilitation strategies for tone-deafness may also help with speech and language disorders", says Loui.
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.