Wr. Steinke et al., Dissociations among functional subsystems governing melody recognition after right-hemisphere damage, COGN NEUROP, 18(5), 2001, pp. 411-437
This study describes an amateur musician, KB, who became amusic following a
right-hemisphere stroke. A series of assessments conducted post-stroke rev
ealed that KB functioned in the normal range for most verbal skills. Howeve
r, compared with controls matched in age and music training, KB showed seve
re loss of pitch and rhythmic processing abilities. His ability to recognis
e and identify familiar instrumental melodies was also lost. Despite these
deficits, KB performed remarkably well when asked to recognise and identify
familiar song melodies presented without accompanying lyrics. This dissoci
ation between the ability to recognise/identify song vs. instrumental melod
ies was replicated across different sets of musical materials, including ne
wly learned melodies. Analyses of the acoustical and musical features of so
ng and instrumental melodies discounted an explanation of the dissociation
based on these features alone. Rather, the results suggest a functional dis
sociation resulting from a focal brain lesion. We propose that, in the case
of song melodies, there remains sufficient activation in KB's melody analy
sis system to coactivate an intact representation of both associative infor
mation and the lyrics in the speech lexicon, making recognition and identif
ication possible. In the case of instrumental melodies, no such associative
processes exist; thus recognition and identification do not occur.