Musical abilities are among the last to be lost in cases of brain ("Dennis P. Phillips" )


Subject: Musical abilities are among the last to be lost in cases of brain
From:    "Dennis P. Phillips"  <Dennis.Phillips(at)DAL.CA>
Date:    Sun, 27 Feb 2005 09:03:25 -0400

Hello Everyone: I wonder if there might be a misunderstanding here. Is it true that "musical abilities are among the last to be lost in cases of brain damage" is some kind of general rule about brain function? An alternate view has three points. First, musical ability is mediated by somewhat different brain regions than is language function. Second, competent language function is also arguably more common than is competent musical function, so selective impairments in the former may be more visible for that reason. Finally, we perhaps hear more about the survival of musical skill in aphasia, than survival of language skills in amusia, because aphasia is so staggeringly obvious and debilitating when it occurs. None of this disputes that in other patients with brain damage, the reverse pattern of deficits is seen, i.e., musical skills are impaired while language function is relatively preserved. As examples, please see: Peretz, Belleville & Fontaine Dissociations between music and language functions after cerebral resection: A new case of amusia without aphasia. Can J Exp Psychol. (1997) 51: 354-68 (in French). Piccirilli, Sciarma & Luzzi Modularity of music: evidence from a case of pure amusia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry (2000) 69: 541-545. Peretz & Zatorre (Eds.) The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music Oxford University Press, 2003. I hope that this helps. All good wishes, Dennis P. Phillips Killam Professor in Psychology Dalhousie University


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