Three Neurological Disorders That Affect Your Ability to Hear Music

When anyone in Foxboro sustains localized brain damage, strange things can happen to the person’s language, vision, cognition, and other capabilities. Some types of acquired neurological disorders can actually affect a person’s ability to hear and appreciate music. Usually these effects result from localized lesions in the brain that are created by a stroke or a traumatic brain injury. Music is a way to express emotions, and individuals generally differ in their musical abilities, proclivities, and tastes. Some people in Foxboro can sing perfectly, whereas others can’t quite carry a tune. Some people are more attuned than others to the beat and rhythm of music. Many music aficionados like rhythmic, pulsating electro, whereas others prefer smooth jazz. Despite these differences, nearly everyone enjoys music to some extent. Like language, music has its basis in the brain. The brainstem, primary auditory cortex, secondary auditory cortex, and other areas of the brain are largely responsible for the recognition of aspects of music like pitch, tone, rhythm, and melody. When one of these areas is damaged, it can result in neurological disorders that are characterized by the loss of the ability to recognize, produce, or appreciate music. 

#1: Amusia

Amusia, also called musical agnosia or musical deafness, can be congenital; however, it is usually acquired due to a brain injury. Amusia is strongly associated with deficits in pitch processing, which also creates difficulties in some aspects of language intonation recognition and spatial processing. Signs of amusia include:

·         Inability to recognize familiar melodies

·         Loss of ability to read musical notation

·         Inability to recognize out-of-tune or “wrong” notes in a piece of music

·         Loss of ability to sing or play an instrument

Like many neurological disorders, amusia can vary in presentation depending on the size and location of the lesion that caused it.

#2: Selective Musical Alexia or Musical Agraphia

Musical alexia and musical agraphia are neurological disorders involving, respectively, a loss of the ability to read musical notation and to write musical notation. Depending on where and to what extent the brain was damaged, a person in Foxboro can lose only one of these abilities while retaining the other. A loss of the ability to read or write music can also occur without an overall loss of musical ability and music recognition. 

#3: Auditory Arrhythmia

Auditory arrhythmia can result from damage to the right temporoparietal area of the brain. It is characterized by a disturbance of the person’s sense of rhythmic patterns in sounds, including music and language. A person with auditory arrhythmia will be unable to perform a basic “tapping task” in which a neurologist instructs them to tap their finger in time. This condition is thought by researchers to result from impairment of the brain’s central timing system. Although auditory arrhythmia is not restricted to music per se, it can severely impact a person’s ability to play or to write music because they can no longer keep time. 

NEUROFEEDBACK THERAPY FOR NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS