Musical, visual and cognitive deficits after middle cerebral artery infarction

Abstract

The perception of music can be impaired after a stroke. This dysfunction is called amusia and amusia patients often also show deficits in visual abilities, language, memory, learning, and attention. The current study investigated whether deficits in music perception are selective for musical input or generalize to other perceptual abilities. Additionally, we tested the hypothesis that deficits in working memory or attention account for impairments in music perception. Twenty stroke patients with small infarctions in the supply area of the middle cerebral artery were investigated with tests for music and visual perception, categorization, neglect, working memory and attention. Two amusia patients with selective deficits in music perception and pronounced lesions were identified. Working memory and attention deficits were highly correlated across the patient group but no correlation with musical abilities was obtained. Lesion analysis revealed that lesions in small areas of the putamen and globus pallidus were connected to a rhythm perception deficit. We conclude that neither a general perceptual deficit nor a minor domain general deficit can account for impairments in the music perception task. But we find support for the modular organization of the music perception network with brain areas specialized for musical functions as musical deficits were not correlated to any other impairment.

Potential Benefits of Music Therapy on Stroke Rehabilitation

“…Early music intervention for patients with stroke is beneficial for long-term plasticity changes of sensory and perceptual processes and promotes the recovery of cognitive function. Rosemann et al have proposed that deficits in memory or attention do not contribute to music perception impairment after stroke [ 98 ]. Vocal music can help improve memory recovery after stroke, as vocal music engages extensive and bilateral networks within the brain observed by functional magnetic resonance imaging, which may stimulate structural and functional plasticity changes in brain neural networks that are crucial for emotional processing and memory [ 99 , 100 ].…”

Understanding rostral–caudal auditory cortex contributions to auditory perception

“…It was only when the vocal calls of monkey conspecifics were used that these properties became obvious9. Furthermore, there is also strong evidence that different kinds of auditory information are represented in distinct parts of the brain; for example, stroke can rob someone of the ability to understand music while preserving functions such as the comprehension of speech and other sounds10. Nevertheless, domain-specific approaches to understanding audition cannot (or do not aim to) account for the perception and processing of sounds outside these domains (such as impact sounds, which are neither vocal nor musical).…”

Inconclusive results of slow cortical potential neurofeedback for the treatment of chronic post-stroke attention deficits

“…Fu et al (2017) found impaired attention in participants after brainstem stroke (Hoffmann and Watts, 1998). Middle cerebral artery infarction was also associated with attention deficits (Robert Teasell and Hussein, 2016;Rosemann et al, 2017). Likewise, cerebellar infarction (Fan et al, 2019), cerebral parietal infarction (Lunven and Bartolomeo, 2017), basal ganglia hemorrhage (Xiong et al, 2016), and thalamic stroke (Kraft et al, 2015) were reported to lead to attention deficits.…”