Clinical investigations of receptive and expressive musical functions after stroke

Abstract

There is a long tradition of investigating various disorders of musical abilities after stroke. These impairments, associated with acquired amusia, can be highly selective, affecting only music perception (i.e., receptive abilities/functions) or expression (music production abilities), and some patients report that these may dramatically influence their emotional state. The aim of this study was to systematically test both the melodic and rhythmic domains of music perception and expression in left- and right-sided stroke patients compared to healthy subjects. Music perception was assessed using rhythmic and melodic discrimination tasks, while tests of expressive function involved the vocal or instrumental reproduction of rhythms and melodies. Our approach revealed deficits in receptive and expressive functions in stroke patients, mediated by musical expertise. Those patients who had experienced a short period of musical training in childhood and adolescence performed better in the receptive and expressive subtests compared to those without any previous musical training. While discrimination of specific musical patterns was unimpaired after a left-sided stroke, patients with a right-sided stroke had worse results for fine melodic and rhythmic analysis. In terms of expressive testing, the most consistent results were obtained from a test that required patients to reproduce sung melodies. This implies that the means of investigating production abilities can impact the identification of deficits.

The Cardiovascular Effect of Musical Genres

“…In antiquity, music was used to improve performance in athletes during the Olympic Games, and narrative anecdotes also contain indications of its effects (3). Studies have investigated the influence of music in the setting of different clinical symptoms/conditions, surgical procedures, or in pain management and palliative medicine (4)(5)(6). In 2009, Bernardi et al published a study that met with much attention, which had analyzed the effect of music on cardiocirculatory parameters in 24 volunteers (7).…”

Tracting the neural basis of music: Deficient structural connectivity underlying acquired amusia

“…Coupled with our previous findings of grey matter atrophy in right anterior temporal areas and WM atrophy in right inferior temporal areas in the rNRA patients (Sihvonen et al, 2016), these results suggest that persistent rhythmamusia is associated with more extensive and bilateral damage and degeneration of frontal and frontotemporal pathways than pitch-amusia. This finding is supported by the lack of any clear lateralization effects for temporal processing of music in healthy subjects (Samson et al, 2011;Alluri et al, 2012), and lesion studies (Liegeois-Chauvel et al, 1998;Ayotte et al, 2000;Schuppert et al, 2000;Rosslau et al, 2015).…”

Golden oldies and silver brains: Deficits, preservation, learning, and rehabilitation effects of music in ageing-related neurological disorders

“…The neuroanatomical basis of acquired amusia has thus far mostly been explored in small-scale lesion studies, which have yielded somewhat inconsistent results regarding the lateralization and precise spatial location of the lesion(s) underlying different types of music perception deficits, with spectral (e.g., pitch, timbre) and temporal (e.g., rhythm, metre) perception deficits being variably reported after temporal, insular, frontal and/or parietal lesions either in the right or left hemisphere (Ayotte, Peretz, Rousseau, Bard, & Bojanowski, 2000;Kester et al, 1991;Liégeois-Chauvel, Peretz, Babaï, Laguitton, & Chauvel, 1998;Rosslau et al, 2015;Särkämö et al, 2009;Schuppert, Münte, Wieringa, & Altenmüller, 2000).…”