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Music Processing After Brain Damage: The Case of Rhythm Without Melody

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Music and the Mind Machine

Abstract

Brain injury can drastically impair musical activities while sparing intellectual and linguistic abilities (see Marin 1982, and Basso 1993, for reviews). Conversely, musicianship can be maintained following brain insult that results in severe global cognitive decline (Beatty, Zavadil, Bailly and al. 1988). These facts suggest that musical abilities are specific functions that are subserved by a neural architecture dedicated to music processing (Peretz and Morais 1993; Sergent et al. 1992). Music is, however, not a monolithic entity. Examination of amusic patients leads to the fascinating realization that music cognition is not affected in its entirety, but in particular abilities only. The selective nature of some of these disorders will be the focus of the present paper. The central idea is that these deficits provide a rich source of information for the understanding of normal music cognition.

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Authors
  1. Isabelle Peretz
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  2. Sylvie Hébert
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pfalzklinik Landeck, Weinstraße 100, D-76889, Klingenmünster, Germany

    Reinhard Steinberg

  2. Psychiatrische Klinik der Universität, Nußbaumstr. 7, D-80336, München, Germany

    Reinhard Steinberg

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© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Peretz, I., Hébert, S. (1995). Music Processing After Brain Damage: The Case of Rhythm Without Melody. In: Steinberg, R. (eds) Music and the Mind Machine. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79327-1_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79327-1_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-58528-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-79327-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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