title: Post-stroke acquired amusia: A comparison between right- and left-brain hemispheric damages.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although extensive research has been published about the emotional consequences of stroke, most studies have focused on emotional words, speech prosody, voices, or facial expressions. The emotional processing of musical excerpts following stroke has been relatively unexplored.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of chronic stroke on the recognition of basic emotions in music.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy persons, including 25 normal controls (NC), 25 persons with right brain damage (RBD) from stroke, and 20 persons with left brain damage (LBD) from stroke between the ages of 31-71 years were studied. The Musical Emotional Bursts (MEB) test, which consists of a set of short musical pieces expressing basic emotional states (happiness, sadness, and fear) and neutrality, was used to test musical emotional perception.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both stroke groups were significantly poorer than normal controls for the MEB total score and its subtests (p < 0.001). The RBD group was significantly less able than the LBD group to recognize sadness (p = 0.047) and neutrality (p = 0.015). Negative correlations were found between age and MEB scores for all groups, particularly the NC and RBD groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings indicated that stroke affecting the auditory cerebrum can cause acquired amusia with greater severity in RBD than LBD. These results supported the "valence hypothesis" of right hemisphere dominance in processing negative emotions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Sciences in Rehabilitation, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran.|Department of Neuroscience, Canadian Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CCBN), University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada.|Iranian Research Center on Aging, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jafari
authors.affiliation: Iranian Research Center on Aging, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahdiye
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Esmaili
authors.affiliation: Iranian Research Center on Aging, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Delbari
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Firouzgar Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mehrpour
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Canadian Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CCBN), University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Majid H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Mohajerani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D020521:Stroke / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Musical Emotional Bursts; Stroke; acquired amusia; aging; emotion recognition