Cultural aspects of music perception: validation of a Greek version of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusias.

Despite music's universality, people perceive and interpret music according to their cultural background. The existing music perception batteries, however, do not take into account possible cultural differences. We adapted the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusias (MBEA) into the requirements of Eastern (Greek) music, where rhythm and melody scales are different from the ones used in Western music. We obtained norms for both the original version of MBEA and its Greek adaptation from the same Greek participants because they are exposed to both genres (traditional and Eastern). Results indicate that some parts of the original MBEA such as the meter test would not be suitable for evaluating the musical abilities of populations with a different musical tradition. Instead, our version of the MBEA, the Greek Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (GBEA) should be preferred in assessing music perception in cultures or individuals influenced by Eastern or both traditions. We also report the results of a congenitally amusic individual (B.Z.) evaluated with both batteries showing that GBEA is a more sensitive tool to evaluate her impairment in music perception.