Unlike other aspects of music, perfect pitch (the ability to identify any musical note without comparing it to a reference note) involves more of the left hemisphere than the right.

In a 1995 study, MRI measurements of the planum temporale were done in right-handed musicians with perfect pitch, musicians without perfect pitch, and nonmusicians. The size of the left planum temporale was twice the size in musicians with perfect pitch than in non musicians, whereas those without perfect pitch had an intermediate size.