  Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of music perception and
production, with the observed deficits contrasting with the sophisticated music
processing reported for the general population. Musical deficits within amusia
have been hypothesized to arise from altered pitch processing, with impairments
in pitch discrimination and, notably, short-term memory. We here review
research investigating its behavioral and neural correlates, in particular the
impairments at encoding, retention, and recollection of pitch information, as
well as how these impairments extend to the processing of pitch cues in speech
and emotion. The impairments have been related to altered brain responses in a
distributed fronto-temporal network, which can be observed also at rest.
Neuroimaging studies revealed changes in connectivity patterns within this
network and beyond, shedding light on the brain dynamics underlying auditory
cognition. Interestingly, some studies revealed spared implicit pitch
processing in congenital amusia, showing the power of implicit cognition in the
music domain. Building on these findings, together with audiovisual integration
and other beneficial mechanisms, we outline perspectives for training and
rehabilitation and the future directions of this research domain.
