评论
打印
You probably know someone who says they're tone-deaf.
你可能知道有人说他们是音盲。
And hey, you might believe it.
嘿，你可能会相信。
I mean, you've heard their off-key version of "Happy Birthday."
我的意思是，你听过他们唱的跑调版“生日快乐歌”。
And when it comes to karaoke night…Well, you just appreciate their enthusiasm.
说到卡拉OK之夜，你只要欣赏他们的热情就好。
In reality, though, there's a difference between singing off-key and being truly tone-deaf.
不过，实际上，唱歌跑调和失音是有区别的。
Your friend might not be able to carry a tune for all kinds of reasons, but for those with congenital amusia, the situation is pretty simple: Their brains just can't perceive musical pitches.
你的朋友可能因为各种原因不能唱下一首歌，但对于那些患有先天失歌症的人来说，情况很简单：他们的大脑只是不能感知音高。
It seems to happen thanks to specific changes in their brains.
这似乎源于他们大脑的特殊变化。
And by understanding how it all goes down, scientists are figuring out more about how we process music in general.
通过了解音乐的发展进程，科学家们正在更深入地研究我们处理音乐的方式。
Maybe unsurprisingly, music is really important to our species.
音乐对人类来说真的很重要，这也许毫不奇怪。
Like, babies can tell the difference between two melodies before they can even talk.
就像婴儿在说话之前就能分辨出两种旋律的不同。
And every culture on Earth has some form of music.
地球上的每一种文化都具有某种形式的音乐。
Researchers think we may have evolved to love it because it's so useful for bonding with other people.
研究人员认为，我们可能已经进化到喜欢它，因为它对与他人建立联系非常有用。
I mean, who doesn't like a good Karaoke night?
我是说，谁不喜欢卡拉OK之夜？
So it makes sense that true tone-deafness is pretty rare, no matter how many people might tell you they're tone-deaf.
所以说真的音盲是很少见的，不管有多少人告诉你他们是音盲。
The truth is, congenital amusia probably affects less than 2% of the population.
事实是，先天性失歌症可能影响的人数不到2%。
People with it, also known as amusics, truly can't hear the difference between two pitches.
患有这种疾病的人，真的听不出两个音高的区别。
In general, they can't recognize a familiar tune without the lyrics or pick out a wrong note in a song they do know.
一般来说，如果没有歌词，他们就认不出一首熟悉的曲子，或是在他们知道的歌曲中挑出一个错误的音符。
And you know that cringy sound of dissonance that you hear when two notes clash?
两个音符冲撞时，会出现那种不和谐的尖叫声？
Well, if you do, you probably aren't tone-deaf.
如果你是这样，你可能不是音盲。
For people with congenital amusia, researchers have said that a concert sounds like a foreign speech — just meaningless noise.
对于患有先天性失歌症的人来说，研究人员表示，音乐会听起来像是外语，只是些毫无意义的噪音。
Fortunately, amusia generally only affects people's perception of music, so they don't have trouble hearing non-musical sounds.
幸运的是，失歌症通常只影响人们对音乐的感知，所以他们在听非音乐声音方面没有问题。
Like, amusic people can still tell people apart by their voices and pick out different noises in their environment.
就像，失歌症患者仍然可以通过声音来区分不同的人，并在他们的环境中挑出不同的声音。
They just can't hear pitch.
他们只是听不到音调。
This disorder affects slightly more women than men, and it's strongly tied to genetics.
这种疾病影响的女性比男性略多，而且与遗传学密切相关。
For instance, a 2007 study looked at 71 members of 9 families that had at least one amusic person in them.
例如，2007年的一项研究调查了9个家庭中的71名成员，其中至少有一名失歌症患者。
And it found that 39 % of people with amusia also had first-degree relatives with the disorder.
结果发现，39%的失歌症患者也有直系亲属患有这种疾病。
Right now, we don't know exactly which genes are responsible for this condition.
现在，我们还不清楚是哪些基因导致患上这种疾病。
But we do know that amusia seems to be connected to differences in the brain.
但我们确实地知道，失歌症似乎与大脑的差异有关。
Specifically, differences in a region called the right inferior frontal gyrus.
特别是在一个叫右下额回的区域存在的差异。
This area may be important for processing and remembering musical pitches.
这个区域对于处理和记忆音高可能很重要。
Scientists are still debating the exact biological root of amusia, but some MRI studies show that people with congenital amusia have less white matter there.
科学家们仍在争论失歌症的确切生物学根源，但一些核磁共振研究表明，先天性失歌症患者大脑中白质较少。
White matter helps carry information around the brain.
白质有助于在大脑中传递信息。
So researchers believe that a lack of it could be a sign of less traffic between key parts of the brain that are involved in hearing music.
因此，研究人员认为，缺乏白质可能是大脑中与听音乐有关的关键部位之间的流量减少的迹象。
But not everyone who's a bad singer has an actual genetic disorder that makes them tone-deaf.
但并不是每个唱歌不好的人都有真正的基因障碍，使他们出现音盲。
Some people can hear pitches fine; they just can't reproduce them.
有些人能很好地听到音调，只是不能再现这些音调。
There are all sorts of steps that happen in your brain between when you hear a pitch and when you try to reproduce it — and a disconnect anywhere along the way can throw you off key.
在你的大脑中，从听到一个音高到试图重现音高的过程中，会有各种各样的步骤发生。而在这一过程中的任何地方脱节，都会让你跑调。
There are a few ideas about where that breakdown might happen.
关于在哪里出现问题，存在着一些理念。
Some research suggests that poor singers just don't have precise control of their larynx, so even though they hear the right pitch correctly, they just can't reproduce it.
一些研究表明，糟糕的歌手只是无法精确地控制他们的喉部，所以即使他们正确地听到了准确的音调，也无法再现。
Other studies have suggested that it's a wiring issue.
其他研究表明这是一个线路问题。
Most people hear a note and then their vocal muscles get together and reproduce that same note.
大多数人听到一个音符，随后发声肌肉聚在一起，重现同一个音符。
But for some people, the mapping might be off — like, every time they hear a B-flat, their brains might map it to the motor pathways that make, say, a C.
但对一些人来说，这种映射可能不稳定。比如说，每当听到一个降B调，他们的大脑可能会把它映射到运动神经通路上，比如说C调。
Then there's even support for the idea that off-key singers just have a bad musical memory — so by the time they're ready to imitate the note they've heard, they've already forgotten it.
甚至有人支持这样一种观点，即唱歌跑调者的音乐记忆很差，所以当他们准备模仿听到的音符时，他们已经把那个音符忘记了。
There may not be one single answer, because no one explanation describes all poor-pitch singers perfectly.
可能没有单一的答案，因为没有一个解释能完美地诠释所有糟糕的歌手。
People also respond differently to things like accompaniment and training, which can help some people reproduce a melody — but not everyone.
人们对诸如伴奏和训练之类的事情也有不同的反应，这可以帮助一些人再现旋律，但不是所有人都会这样。
All of this points to the idea that music doesn't target just one place in the brain.
所有这些都指向这样一个观点：音乐并不是只针对大脑中的一个区域。
It's a whole network of connected parts, and differences in any given region can alter how you perceive or produce music.
它是一个由相互连接的部分组成的整体网络，任何特定区域的差异都会改变你对音乐的感知或唱歌。
In the end, there are plenty of reasons a person might be bad at singing without being tone-deaf.
归根结底，有很多原因可以解释一个人并不是音盲的情况下，歌唱得不好。
Because singing well relies on many different elements — not just hearing.
因为唱歌好依赖于很多不同的元素——不仅仅是听觉。
And if any one of them fails, well, you might skip the next karaoke night.
如果它们中的任何一个方面出现问题，你或许不用去参加下一个卡拉OK之夜了。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢收看本期《心理科学秀》！
And thanks to our patrons for supporting free education on the internet.
感谢我们的赞助人支持互联网上的免费教育。
We couldn't do this without you.
没有你们，我们就无法制作节目。
And if you're not a patron but you like what we do here at SciShow, you can learn about supporting us at patreon.com/scishow.
如果你不是赞助人，但喜欢我们在科学秀做的工作，可以在patreon.com/SciShow网站上了解如何给予我们支持。
