title: Effects of listening to pleasant music on chronic unilateral neglect: a single-subject study.
abstract: Recent studies suggest that the positive emotion induced by pleasant music may improve cognitive functions. We used the single-subject design to study whether listening to preferred music may reduce unilateral neglect in two participants with post-stroke neglect. These participants were instructed to listen to their preferred music every day for 5 weeks, followed by 2 weeks of follow-up assessment. Outcome measures involved the Star Cancellation Test, the Line Bisection Test, and the visual exploration task. A combination of visual analysis and the two-standard-deviation band method was used for data analysis. Both participants showed significant intervention-related improvements on all outcome measures except the Line Bisection Test, on which one participant showed no improvement. The therapeutic effects were maintained during the follow-up phase. The findings suggest that positive emotion, evoked by preferred music, may be used to ameliorate unilateral neglect. Further research using controlled trials is warranted to validate the findings.
authors: Department of Occupational Therapy, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 701, Taiwan. pltsai@mail.ncku.edu.tw
authors: Pei-Luen
authors: PL
authors: Tsai
authors: Mei-Ching
authors: MC
authors: Chen
authors: Yu-Ting
authors: YT
authors: Huang
authors: Keh-Chung
authors: KC
authors: Lin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D016896:Treatment Outcome