Journal
CORTEX
Volume 36, Issue 2, Pages 227-242Publisher
MASSON DIVISIONE PERIODICI
DOI: 10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70526-4
Keywords
amusia; progressive aphasia; cerebral plasticity
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dM.M, a right-handed, 74 year old professional musician and composer, presented with a progressive aphasia with a severe anemia. His musical competence was apparently totally preserved, and he continued his activity as a composer. There was a striking discrepancy between his impaired naming of nonmusical stimuli and his normal naming of musical instruments' sounds. We suggest that the preservation of skills in the musical domain results from an expanded cortical representation of this function in the left hemisphere, secondary to his lifelong formal training, and to the high level of his professional competence. As for his preserved naming of musical instruments, we argue that the early age-of-acquisition and higher than normal'' frequency/familiarity for names of musical instruments facilitate the access to their lexical representation and/or their retrieval within the lexicon.
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