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Biomedical subjects

H Kalmus

Publications and source records attributed to H Kalmus.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1980

On tune deafness (dysmelodia): frequency, development, genetics and musical background.

With the aid of the Distorted Tunes Test a group of British adults could be established whose melodic aptitude was below a certain level and whom we called tune deaf. They are only a fraction of those popularly called tone deaf. The Distorted Tunes Test is only slightly correlated with pitch discrimination, short term tonal memory or number memory. In children ability to pass the Distorted Tunes Test develops at greatly varying speeds and to a varying degree, reaching stability in adolescence. Tune deafness has a familial distribution and segregates in a way suggesting an autosomal dominant trait with imperfect penetrance. Some degree of positive assortative mating has been established. Some people, unfamiliar with the British melodies which form the basis of the test, pass it. This indicates the existence of a partly innate and partly acquired competence to judge what is acceptable and what is not, within the tradition of Western popular or classical music. This seems to indicate the existence of some deep structure of tonality, comparable with Chomsky's deep language structure. Asians who have not been much exposed to this kind of music find the task very difficult.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Probable common origin of a hereditary fundus dystrophy (Sorsby's familial pseudoinflammatory macular dystrophy) in an English and Australian family.

A genealogical link was established six generations back between a family living in England and Australia, and one of the families reported originally by Sorsby et al (1949) as suffering from autosomal dominant inflammatory macular dystrophy (fundus dystrophy). The onset--in the fifth decade of life--and the progress of the condition, which usually ends in blindness, has been observed in a number of patients and the prodromal development of a colour vision deficiency in some of them confirmed. This defect is fundamentally different from the X-linked colour vision defects and merits further investigation.

Aged↗
PubMed1975

Correlated odour threshold bimodality of two out of three synthetic musks.

The odour threshold bimodality for exaltolide described by Whissell-Buechy & Amoore (1973) among American whites is confirmed for a population sample in London. A highly correlated bimodality presumed to be caused by the absence of inactivity of certain receptor sites is shown to exist for another structurally different musk substance, musk ambrette. The thresholds for musk ketone show no bimodality and their correlation with the thresholds for the two other musks is low.

Chemoreceptor Cells↗