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Tonal deafness is a cognitive processing disorder where the brain can’t differentiate between similar pitches. It may have a genetic component, and while some training can help distinguish pitches, those who are tone-deaf cannot be trained. Tests are available to diagnose the condition, which can limit career options.
Tonal deafness is the inability to discern between similar pitches, although people can usually tell the difference between radically different pitches. Rather than being a hearing disability, it is the result of a cognitive processing disorder in which the area of the brain responsible for handling sound is unable to differentiate between sounds with very similar pitches. Many people refer to bad singers as “deaf,” but in reality, very few people who sing badly actually have amusia, the formal term for sound deafness; usually, their poor musical skills are the result of a lack of training.
There appears to be a genetic component involved in tone deafness. While studies suggest that some training is required to learn to differentiate pitches, as seen in very young children beginning to learn to distinguish and process speech with adult models to deliver instruction, as well as musicians receiving advanced training about how to play music instruments and sing, people who are really out of tune can’t be trained to tell the difference between similar pitches.
Some neurologists believe that areas of the brain involved in musical pitch processing may also be part of language processing and express concerns about the implications of tone deafness for speech understanding and generation. Others believe this is not the case. Many studies examining the connections between tone deafness and speech have examined cultures that use tone languages, where researchers who believe that speech and music are connected would expect to find that tone-deaf people would have difficulty understanding the language. These studies have been inconclusive in nature.
Tests are available to see if people have an auditory processing problem that leads to tone deafness. In the test, people hear different tones and pieces of music and respond to prompts from the person taking the test. You can ask people if two tones are different or if a piece of music sounds wrong. If the person cannot distinguish out-of-pitch music or cannot hear the difference between two similar tones, amusia is the likely cause.
Having trouble hearing the difference between tones isn’t a significant disability, but it can potentially be a problem. People with pitch deafness certainly cannot pursue a career in music, and the ability to hear subtle variations in pitch may be important in other fields as well. Mechanics, for example, are very attuned to the sound of engines and can sometimes diagnose or identify problems based on changes in pitch or shifts in the sounds an engine makes.
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