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Discovery

Why do some people have no sense of direction?

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.31.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2017

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Two challenges for the team today involving singing and navigating.

The Melodic Mystery "Why is my mother tone deaf?" asks listener Simon, "and can I do anything to ensure my son can at least carry a tune?" Hannah admits to struggling to hold a tune and has a singing lesson with teacher Michael Bonshor, although it doesn’t go quite to plan. We meet Martin who hates music because he has the clinical form of tone deafness, known as amusia. Just as people with dyslexia see words differently to other people, if you have amusia you don't hear melodies in the same way. Adam talks to music psychologist Dr Vicky Williamson from Sheffield University who studies Martin, and others like him, to try and discover why their brains operate differently.

The Lost Producer In our second case, we investigate why some people have a terrible sense of direction. It’s the turn of Producer Michelle to be put to the test to try improve her poor navigational skills. Prof Hugo Spiers from University College London examines Michelle’s sense of direction using his free game 'Sea Hero Quest'. Catherine Loveday from the University of Westminster suggests strategies to stop Michelle from getting lost. And tune in to find out which country houses the world’s best navigators.

Photo: Indonesian Army personnel read a map. Credit: Juni Kriswanto/AFP /Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thank you for downloading from the BBC.

0:03.0

The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use,

0:07.0

go to BBCworldservice.com slash podcasts.

0:33.0

Welcome to episode 5 of the... broadcasts. Dr. we ran on him in the first series. Yes. Let's just recap on some of them, shall we?

0:35.6

So I was, for the first and possibly worst

0:38.1

was that I had to get up at about 5 o'clock in the morning

0:40.9

and drive in hideous traffic around the ring around London.

0:43.7

We all say you try to make you faint.

0:45.9

You did you try to make me faint actually failed but then I did have to be strapped to a board

0:49.6

for an hour.

0:50.3

And we waxed you?

0:51.3

Yes, not as best if you don't say we waxed you. Yes, it's best if you don't say we waxed you.

0:54.2

I was waxed so we wouldn't want the listener to get the wrong idea.

0:57.7

So as your revenge in this episode, Adam basically makes me and producer Michelle Martin explore things that we're

1:05.8

terrible at on air.

1:06.8

Terrible at and the first one, actually not that terrible.

1:09.7

I made Hannah have a singing lesson.

1:12.8

Yes.

1:13.6

How was it?

1:14.8

Didn't go that well.

1:16.4

Let's have a lesson.

1:17.4

Bum.

...

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