title: Impaired pitch production and preserved rhythm production in a right brain-damaged patient with amusia.
abstract: Pre- and postmorbid singing of a patient with amusia due to a right-hemispheric infarction was analyzed acoustically. This particular patient had a premorbid tape recording of her own singing without accompaniment. Appropriateness of pitch interval and rhythm was evaluated based on ratios of pitch and duration between neighboring notes. The results showed that melodic contours and rhythm were preserved but individual pitch intervals were conspicuously distorted. Our results support a hypothesis that pitch and rhythm are subserved by independent neural subsystems. We concluded that action-related acoustic information for controlling pitch intervals is stored in the right hemisphere.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Showa University, Tokyo 142-8666, Japan.
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Murayama
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kashiwagi
authors.forename: Asako
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kashiwagi
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mimura
mesh_terms: D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020244:Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014833:Voice Quality / Q000502:physiology*