Musical notes in the head are not needed for people to score perfectly on complex rhythm tests.
April 20, 2026
Original Paper
Music perception and musical preferences in people who experience anauralia – the absence of auditory imagery
PsyArXiv · cm85z_v1
The Takeaway
Anauralia is a condition where individuals lack auditory imagery and live in a world of internal silence. Most people assume that being musical requires replaying melodies in your mind or hearing a mental radio while reading sheet music. Testing shows that these silent-minded individuals process pitch and tempo just as accurately as anyone else. Their brains manage to calculate musical structures without the need for a subjective internal soundtrack. This finding proves that technical skill and aesthetic appreciation do not depend on having a vivid imagination.
From the abstract
This brief report summarises a presentation delivered by the first author at The Mind’s Ear and Inner Voice 2025 conference. This research investigated musical ability, engagement and preferences of people who report no internal experience of auditory imagery, which has been termed ‘anauralia’. Data were collected in collaboration with themusiclab.org, a citizen science website dedicated to researching auditory perception via gamified experiments. We begin by reporting relationships between self