Valproate Can give 'Perfect Pitch'

Can a seizure pill give a person a perfect pitch? If we are to believe a study by Harvard University researchers, then yes.

According to the study, Valproate (valproic acid) can alter brain function, which can lead to a person gaining a perfect pitch.

According to the researchers, the drug enables the brain to absorb new information.

The study was conducted on mice models. Researchers found that mice on the drug could perform tasks that baby mice picked up effortlessly, with as much ease, Medicalxpress reported. Human volunteers also had improvements in gaining the perfect pitch.

"It's a mood-stabilizing drug, but we found that it also restores the plasticity of the brain to a juvenile state," Takao Hensch, professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, told npr.

The perfect pitch

Absolute or perfect pitch is an intriguing phenomenon where a person can identify and re-create a musical note without using a reference pitch. Such people can learn to play an instrument by listening to others playing a song on it. The ability is mostly genetic, but early musical training can help others achieve the absolute pitch.

The human trials in the present research involved young adults who had no musical training during childhood. The drug was able to give them some ability to discriminate between tones.

"It's quite remarkable since there are no known reports of adults acquiring absolute pitch," Hensch said, npr reported.

The study is published in the journal Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience.

An earlier study had shown that people with absolute pitch might not be as in tune as they like to think.

You can test your pitch sense, here. 

Apart from migraines, valproate is also used to relieve symptoms of epilepsy (seizure). Previous studies have shown that exposure to antiepileptic drugs in the womb can lead to autism and other neurological disorders in children.