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Thursday, August 30, 2007

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Study Suggests Pitch May All Be In The Genes

Study Suggests Pitch May All Be In The Genes

Thursday, August 30, 2007 (Bodyhealthsoul Health News)--

Researchers have stated that according to a web-based do-it-yourself study, evidence for a possible genetic basis for absolute pitch (this being the rare ability to identify the pitch of a musical note without other notes as reference-might very well exist.

Elaborations by the lead author Jane Gitschier, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco lead to the following explanation: "We asked, 'What is the chance that a sibling of a person with absolute pitch also has absolute pitch?', Both in our study and others, there appears to be an eight- to 14-fold increase in the likelihood. Our goal is to get at what the genes are."

On the quest to attain achievement of that goal, Gitschier and her colleagues are asking participants who demonstrate what musicians prefer to call absolute pitch -- rather than perfect pitch -- to send in samples of their DNA to aid in the search for the purported genes.

Experts related to this story have indicated that most people have so-called "relative pitch" and are able to identify a pitch when it is surrounded by pitches at nearby levels.

It is widely believed that among musicians, Mozart was said to have had perfect pitch, allowing him to copy the works of other composers in his childhood years.

As is published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the new study, covers data from 2,213 people who went to the Web site of the University of California Genetics of Absolute Pitch Study.

Reportedly, they were asked to identify both pure tones from a synthesizer and piano tones, and also to complete an accompanying survey. Of those who filled all the requirements, 981 were found to have perfect pitch, Gitschier said.

One expected finding from the study is that pitch perception changes with age, as older people err in the "sharp" direction, she said.

"We also discovered that in the subjects who entered the study, absolute pitch appears to be an all-or-none phenomenon," Gitschier said. "People are either really good at it or not good at all."

In conclusion, it is believed that whatever its cause, perfect pitch fascinates many people.

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