Vision and music

Have you ever wondered what is common to musical geniuses such as Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder?

Ever wondered what is common to musical geniuses such as Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder? They lost their eyesight at an early age and if neuroscientists in Canada are to be believed, this seemingly unfortunate incident is responsible for their musical creativity.

According to Nature, a team of scientists led by Robert Zatorre of McGill University in Montreal divided 14 blind subjects aged 21 to 46 into two groups: those who were blind at birth or lost their sight during the first two years of life, and those for whom blindness came later.

Fully sighted people were tested to see which of the three groups performed best at pitch-recognition tasks. Subjects listened to pairs of tones played one after the other, and were asked to decide whether the second was higher or lower than the first.

Difference in pitch of the two tones and their duration was varied.

'Early blind' subjects outperformed the other groups by continuing to make correct distinctions as the notes got either shorter or closer in pitch.

The blind subjects' ages reflect that it is the age at which blindness occurs, rather than simply the number of years spent without vision, that determines sensitivity to pitch.

According to study leader Pascal Belin, the discovery reveals a lot about the brain's capacity to reorganize itself early in life. He suspects that the visual cortex, the part of the brain that usually deals with vision, can be used to process other sensory information if given the chance.