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Relatively preserved knowledge of music in semantic dementia
  1. Julia C Hailstone,
  2. Rohani Omar,
  3. Jason D Warren
  1. Dementia Research Centre, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
  1. Dr J D Warren, Dementia Research Centre, Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK; jwarren{at}drc.ion.ucl.ac.uk

Abstract

The brain basis for music knowledge and the effects of disease on music cognition are poorly understood. Here we present evidence for relatively preserved knowledge of music in a musically untrained patient with semantic dementia and characteristic asymmetric anterior temporal lobe atrophy. Our findings suggest that music is partly separable neuropsychologically and anatomically from other semantic domains, with implications for the clinical management of patients with brain disease.

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2008.153130

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests: None.

    • Funding: This work was supported by the UK Medical Research Council and the Alzheimer’s Research Trust. JDW is supported by a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship. This work was undertaken at University College London, London, UK, which receives a proportion of funding from the Department of Health’s National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centres funding scheme. The Dementia Research Centre is an Alzheimer’s Research Trust Co-ordinating Centre.