Study Claims Increased Ability To Hear Pitch In Adults On Valproate

Fiddle Tracks Online: Click through and listen to musicians play with perfect pitch!

Adults can learn to play an instrument, but many previous studies have demonstrated that certain synapses in the brain close by age twelve and eliminate the possibility of developing into a world class musician.

It is also been an accepted fact that while the ability to hear relative pitch may be improved with practice in some adults, if the ability to hear absolute pitch hasn’t been acquired by age three or four up to, at the latest, age nine, it’s no longer possible. Here’s just one of many examples of why this matters: a fiddle doesn’t have frets so a player with the ability to hear absolute pitch has a huge advantage.

Now comes research, The Valproate Study On Pitch claiming taking Valproate can permit an adult to greatly improve their ability to recognize absolute pitch:

So is this a great breakthrough or will we soon hear the usual: “Want perfect pitch? Take Valproate, but by the way “side effects include hair loss, incontinance, increased risk of cancer, five weeks after starting treatment you may grow an extra head…..”