Perfect pitch, also called absolute pitch, is the ability to accurately name any pitch you hear. People with perfect pitch can sing any note of the chromatic scale without hearing reference pitches first.
Until recently, perfect pitch was thought to be an innate ability that very few children possessed. The American Psychological Association estimates that only one in 10,000 Americans have the gift.
But according to a research report published last week, scientists have discovered that Valproate, a drug used to treat epilepsy, can help adults develop perfect pitch.
Research had shown that the drug enabled adult mice to learn habits that were previously only possible for mice to learn during youth.
Harvard researcher Takao Hensch and an international team of scientists, then, decided to give Valproate to a group of adult men who had no prior musical training. They asked the group to complete an online ear-training course that lasted for two weeks.
At the end of the trial, those who took Valproate were significantly better at identifying pitches than those taking a placebo.
Hensch, who is a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, recently discussed the research team's findings with Linda Wertheimer of NPR. "It's a mood-stabilizing drug, but we found that it also restores the plasticity of the brain to a juvenile state," Hensch said.
In other words, the drug seems to restore the ability to learn certain tasks that were once thought impossible to learn outside of childhood.
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