Neuropsychology of musical perception: new perspectives

For now well over a century, neuropsychologists have investigated the various components of auditory perception. The central disorders of this perception have been a topic of considerable interest, mainly through observations of auditory agnosia or amusia (selective loss of musical abilities). In a remarkable way, it was shown that the disorders of music and language perception could be dissociated. Although it is usual to assert that the perception of music is subserved by the right hemisphere, observations of brain‐damaged patients reveal the involvement of both hemispheres. The idea, that amusia follows generally right hemispherical lesions, corresponds in particular to the fact that, in rare cases where musicians have had a left sylvian infarction (e.g. Wernicke’s aphasia), they have been able to continue their musical career and follow a quasi normal artistic activity. However, the clinical association of linguistic and musical disorders is also often noted, and the observations of ‘pure’ amusia are extremely rare in the literature. Thus, it remains difficult to establish precisely the functional neuroanatomy of musical perception from such clinical studies (Lechevalieret al., 1985).