Brain & Music: an intraoperative stimulation mapping study of a professional opera singer.

Brain & Music: an intraoperative stimulation mapping study of a professional opera singer.

World Neurosurg. 2016 Jul 11;

Authors: Riva M, Casarotti A, Comi A, Pessina F, Bello L

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Music is one of the most sophisticated and fascinating function of the brain. Yet, how music is instantiated within the brain is not fully characterized. Singing is a peculiar aspect of music, where both musical and linguistic skills are required to provide a merged vocal output. Identifying the neural correlates of this process is relevant for both clinical and research purposes.
CASE DESCRIPTION: An adult caucasian man with a presumed left temporal glioma was studied. He is a professional opera singer with an actual employment. A tailored music evaluation, the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA), was performed pre- and post-operatively, with long-term follow-up. Intraoperative stimulation mapping (ISM) with awake surgery with a specific music evaluation battery was used to identify and preserve the cortical and subcortical structures subserving music, along with standard motor-sensory and language mapping. A total resection of a grade I glioma was achieved. The MBEA reported an improvement in musical scores after the surgery. ISM consistently elicited several types errors in the superior temporal gyrus and, to a lesser extent, in the inferior frontal operculum. The majority of errors occurred during score-reading; fewer errors were elicited during the assessment of the rhythm. No spontaneous errors were recorded. These areas did not overlap with eloquent sites for counting or naming.
CONCLUSIONS: ISM and a tailored music battery enabled to better characterize a specific network within the brain subserving score-reading independently from speech with an actual long-term clinical impact.

PMID: 27418534 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

from Speech via a.lsfakia on Inoreader http://ift.tt/29JHRzn
via IFTTT