Absence of amusia and preserved naming of musical instruments in an aphasic composer

dM.M, a right-handed, 74 year old professional musician and composer, prese nted with a progressive aphasia with a severe anemia. His musical competenc e was apparently totally preserved, and he continued his activity as a comp oser. There was a striking discrepancy between his impaired naming of nonmu sical stimuli and his normal naming of musical instruments' sounds. We sugg est that the preservation of skills in the musical domain results from an e xpanded cortical representation of this function in the left hemisphere, se condary to his lifelong formal training, and to the high level of his profe ssional competence. As for his preserved naming of musical instruments, we argue that the early age-of-acquisition and higher than "normal'' frequency /familiarity for names of musical instruments facilitate the access to thei r lexical representation and/or their retrieval within the lexicon.