History of Amusia

Abstract

We live in a world surrounded by sound. Throughout life, we are exposed to music: from lullabies and songs taught at school to instrumental music both heard and played for pleasure. Every nation, along with its own language, has unique forms of music and dance. "Music knows no boundaries," as the saying goes. Just as language impairment is known as "aphasia," impairment of the perception of music is called "amusia." In this article, we will first classify the types of amusia. This will be followed by an introduction to the classical research of Salomon Eberhard Henschen (1847-1930), and to a discussion of higher auditory functions in which we highlight cases of amusia encountered in a person and through the literature.