A selective loss of the ability to read and to write music

This paper is a single case study of a professional musician, PKC, with a s elective impairment in reading, writing and understanding musical notation. After sustaining a left posterior temporal robe lesion and a small right o ccipitotemporal lesion in an episode of haemorrhagic encephalitis, the pati ent showed a specific deficit in reading music. She retained the ability to read aloud letters, words, numbers and symbols, including the musical ones , but was quite unable to read aloud musical notes on the staff, either by naming with the conventional letter or by singing or playing them. On the o ther hand, PKC was still able to remember and play both familiar and new me lodies, indicating that the musical reading deficit was not part of a more general musical impairment. The implication for the processing of symbolic notations is discussed.