title: The impact of cerebellar disorders on musical ability.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The cerebellum contributes not only to motor coordination but also to cognitive processing. Emphasizing the cerebro-cerebellar connectivity, present literature declares a decisive role of the cerebellum in music perception.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with cerebellar disorders (n=15) due to infarction or genetically caused degeneration were tested on their musical ability and compared to matched healthy control subjects. We used a validated and standardized test of musical ability including the reproduction of rhythm and meter, melody comparison, emotion identification, pitch discrimination and the recognition of familiar melodies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patient group presented significantly lower scores in the subtests meter, melody comparison and emotion identification as compared to healthy control subjects. Rhythm reproduction and pitch discrimination were not affected by cerebellar disorders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Testing musical ability in cerebellar disorders may serve as an additional tool to detect and quantify cognitive deficits, namely for music perception. As a consequence, it might be that musical stimulation can be helpful in cognitive impairment due to cerebellar lesions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tölgyesi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany; Department of Neurology, Krankenhaus Lindenbrunn, Coppenbrügge, Germany. Electronic address: everss@uni-muenster.de.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Evers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001308:Auditory Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D002526:Cerebellar Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017827:Machado-Joseph Disease / Q000150:complications; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D009146:Music; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
keywords: Cerebellum; Music perception; Musical ability