Dissociations among functional subsystems governing melody recognition after right-hemisphere damage

Abstract

This study describes an amateur musician, KB, who became amusic following a right-hemisphere stroke. A series of assessments conducted post-stroke revealed that KB functioned in the normal range for most verbal skills. However, compared with controls matched in age and music training, KB showed severe loss of pitch and rhythmic processing abilities. His ability to recognise 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 dissociation between the ability to recognise/identify song vs. instrumental melodies was replicated across different sets of musical materials, including newly learned melodies. Analyses of the acoustical and musical features of song and instrumental melodies discounted an explanation of the dissociation based on these features alone. Rather, the results suggest a functional dissociation resulting from a focal brain lesion. We propose that, in the case of song melodies, there remains sufficient activation in KB's melody analysis system to coactivate an intact representation of both associative information and the lyrics in the speech lexicon, making recognition and identification possible. In the case of instrumental melodies, no such associative processes exist; thus recognition and identification do not occur.

Altered retrieval of melodic information in congenital amusia: insights from dynamic causal modeling of MEG data

“…This right-lateralized abnormality is in line with previous research showing functional and anatomical alteration of this pathway in congenital amusia (Loui et al, 2009 ; Hyde et al, 2011 ; Albouy et al, 2013a ; Lévêque et al, submitted). Moreover, the present data further support the hypothesis that the processing of pitch information in the brain is, to some extent, asymmetric with a right-hemispheric predominance (with both hemispheres being involved) as it has been previously suggested based on musical deficits observed for patients with right-hemispheric brain lesions (Zatorre and Samson, 1991 ; Peretz, 1996 , 2001 ; Peretz et al, 1997 ; Patel et al, 1998 ; Steinke et al, 2001 ; Nicholson et al, 2002 , 2003 ; Stewart et al, 2006 ), and by neuroimaging studies in typical listeners (Zatorre et al, 1994 , 2002 ; Griffiths, 1999 ; Griffiths et al, 1999 ; Janata et al, 2002a , b ; Tillmann et al, 2003 , 2006 ; Koelsch et al, 2005 , 2009 ; Peretz and Zatorre, 2005 ; Hyde et al, 2008 ; Stewart et al, 2008 ; Schulze et al, 2009 , 2011a , b ).…”

Impaired naming of famous musical melodies is associated with left temporal polar damage.

“…We would like to emphasize that a strength of the current study is the Famous Melodies Test, an extensive battery of famous musical melodies. Our Famous Melodies Test, which consists of 52 melodies, is considerably more comprehensive than previous batteries of famous melodies (Hsieh et al, 2011; Johnson et al, 2011; Liegeois-Chauvel et al, 1998; Steinke et al, 2001), likely leading to more reliable outcomes.…”

“…This prevented songs with slower tempos from having less musical information than songs with faster tempos. This method, of selecting a certain number of musical phases as opposed to a specific length of time, has been used in previous research on melody recognition (e.g., Steinke et al, 2001). …”

“…Previous research has frequently investigated the neuroanatomical underpinnings of recognition of famous musical melodies (Hailstone et al, 2009; Hsieh et al, 2011; Peretz et al, 1994; Platel et al, 2003; Steinke et al, 2001). In these studies, subjects have been asked to identify whether a melody is familiar or not, to continue humming the tune of the melody, or to pick the name of the melody from a group of names (in a multiple choice recognition format).…”

Song and speech: Examining the link between singing talent and speech imitation ability

“…On a very fundamental level, song consists of one or both of the following: melody and lyrics (Crowder et al, 1990). However, the question as to whether being able to memorize or recall a song involves a dual system of storage, lyrics, and melody being stored independently, remains unanswered and a topic that continues to be discussed at length (Bonnel et al, 2001;Steinke et al, 2001;Peretz et al, 2004;Racette and Peretz, 2007;Stahl et al, 2011).…”