Acoustically controlled binaural auditory training with vocal duets: assessment and effectiveness

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a binaural auditory training program with vocal duets by comparing skills through outcomes from behavioral and electrophysiological assessment instruments at three moments: before the intervention, moment one (M1); immediately after training, moment two (M2); and 3 months after, moment three (M3). METHODS: This interventional, longitudinal, prospective, and uncontrolled study was approved by our Research Ethics Committee. Binaural auditory training with vocal duets (ATVD) was applied in 10 adults with normal audiometric thresholds and auditory processing disorders. ATVD used four different vocals of a public domain song sung in a cappella as stimuli. Participants were asked to register any perceived difference in frequency for each syllable of the song during 30-minute sessions twice a week. The number of sessions required ranged from 12 (6 hours) to 20 (10 hours). RESULTS: Regarding behavioral tests, the dichotic consonant-vowel test showed significant evidence of an improved advantage in the left ear (LE) in the non-forced condition and a significant reduction in the number of errors at M2 and M3 in the forced left condition. The speech-in-noise test and frequency pattern test showed a significant reduction in impaired results at M2 and M3. Electrophysiological results showed a significant increase in the LE amplitude in the P3 long-latency auditory evoked potentials test, as well as a decrease in the auditory brainstem response test (III-V and I-V inter-peak latencies in the right ear and wave I and I-III inter-peak latencies in LE). CONCLUSION: The effectiveness of ATVD was evidenced, and the results were maintained after 3 months.

The therapeutic effect of melodic intonation therapy on Broca's aphasia after stroke / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

Objective To investigate the effect of melody intonation therapy on the language function of Chinese-speaking stroke survivors with Broca's aphasia. Methods Forty patients with Broca's aphasia after stroke were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group, each of 20. The treatment group received melodic intonation training, while the control group received routine speech rehabilitation training including training of the vocal organs, oral expression, literal expression and listening comprehension 30 minutes a day, five days a week for 12 weeks. Before and after the treatment, the spontaneous speech, listening comprehension, retelling and naming of both groups were tested using the western aphasia battery. Results After the intervention, a significant increase was observed in the average aphasia quotient, speech, listening comprehension, retelling and naming scores of both groups. The average spontaneous speech, listening comprehension and naming scores and the aphasia quotient of the treatment group were then significantly better than those of the control group. Conclusion Melody intonation training and rhythm training can improve the speech and daily communication ability of stroke survivors effectively.

Selective impairment of musical emotion recognition in patients with amnesic mild cognitive impairment and mild to moderate Alzheimer disease / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

Background@#Patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) and amnesic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) have deficits in emotion recognition. However, it has not yet been determined whether patients with AD and aMCI also experience difficulty in recognizing the emotions conveyed by music. This study was conducted to investigate whether musical emotion recognition is impaired or retained in patients with AD and aMCI.@*Methods@#All patients were recruited from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University between March 1, 2015 and January 31, 2017. Using the musical emotion recognition test, patients with AD (n = 16), patients with aMCI (n = 19), and healthy controls (HCs, n = 16) were required to choose one of four emotional labels (happy, sad, peaceful, and fearful) that matched each musical excerpt. Emotion recognition scores in three groups were compared using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. We also investigated the relationship between the emotion recognition scores and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) using Pearson’s correlation analysis test in patients with AD and aMCI.@*Results@#Compared to the HC group, both of the patient groups showed deficits in the recognition of fearful musical emotions (HC: 7.88 ± 1.36; aMCI: 5.05 ± 2.34; AD: 3.69 ± 2.02), with results of a one-way ANOVA confirming a significant main effect of group (F(2,50) = 18.70, P < 0.001). No significant differences were present among the three groups for the happy (F(2,50)=2.57, P = 0.09), peaceful (F(2,50) = 0.38, P = 0.09), or sad (F(2,50) = 2.50, P = 0.09) musical emotions. The recognition of fearful musical emotion was positively associated with general cognition, which was evaluated by MMSE in patients with AD and aMCI (r = 0.578, P < 0.001). The correlations between the MMSE scores and recognition of the remaining emotions were not significant (happy, r = 0.228, P= 0.11; peaceful, r= 0.047, P= 0.74; sad, r= 0.207, P= 0.15).@*Conclusion@#This study showed that both patients with AD and aMCI had decreased ability to distinguish fearful emotions, which might be correlated with diminished cognitive function.

Trastornos de la percepción musical / Musical perception disorders

La percepción musical es una experiencia que no sólo involucra componentes cognitivos, sino también respuestas emocionales acorde a la experiencia y cultura del sujeto. El procesamiento musical se inicia a nivel periférico en el sistema auditivo, y a nivel central se divide en diferentes regiones cerebrales que se ocupan del análisis de la organización melódica y temporal, además del análisis del repertorio. Por lo tanto, es necesaria una gran red neuronal córtico-subcortical ascendente y descendente, entre ambos hemisferios y además conexiones hacia el cerebelo, que permiten la creación de la percepción musical. Los trastornos de la percepción musical se pueden clasificar a grandes rasgos, en amusia y alucinaciones musicales. La amusia, en términos generales, es la pérdida específica de la percepción musical, que puede ser congénita o adquirida. Un grupo creciente de pacientes con amusia adquirida son la mayoría de los usuarios de implante coclear. Por otro lado, las alucinaciones musicales son descripciones verbales de experiencias sensoriales acústicas de tipo musical que no están explicadas por un estímulo externo y están presentes en pacientes con patología neurológica y psiquiátrica, pero también en personas con sordera profunda bilateral. Actualmente, existen disponibles algunos instrumentos para evaluar las alteraciones de la percepción musical, siendo la batería de Montreal para la evaluación de amusia, una de las pruebas musicales más utilizadas que permite estimar las habilidades perceptuales y de memoria en adultos y recientemente también en niños. Los trastornos de la percepción musical son patologías emergentes con impacto en la calidad de vida de los pacientes.

Music perception is an experience that involves cognitive and emotional sensations according to the cultural background of the subject. The musical processing begins at the periphery in the auditory system and then in the central level is divided in melodic and temporal processing including the musical repertory. An extensive cortical and subcortical neuronal network is needed for the creation of the musical experience including ascending and descending pathways, both cerebral hemispheres and the cerebellum. Musical perception disorders can be classified in two main groups; amusia and musical hallucinations. Amusia corresponds to the inability to recognize musical tones that can be congenital or acquired. A growing group of acquired amusia patients is the majority of cochlear implant users. On the other hand musical hallucinations are the perception of music without an external stimulus, which can be produced by neurologic and psychiatric states, but also in persons with profound bilateral deafness. Nowadays the Montreal battery of evaluation of amusia is available to evaluate the perceptual skills and memory in adults and child; this test allows the detection of musical perception disorders that are seen as an emerging group of diseases with an important impact in life quality of our patients.

O ritmo como questão nas manifestações verbais singulares do autista / Musical rhythm as a question in singular verbal manifestations of autistic individuals / Le rythme comme question dans les manifestations verbales singulières de l'autiste / El ritmo como objeto de las singulares manifestaciones verbales del autista

Neste artigo, assumimos a proposta de que a música, em sua dimensão rítmica, possibilitaria, de forma singular, a produção e circulação de significantes nas verbalizações da criança com diagnóstico de autismo. Assim, acompanhamos sessões de gravação em vídeo - de um menino autista com sua terapeuta - das quais recortamos alguns episódios que exemplificam manifestações rítmicas do menino. Por sua vez, tais manifestações apontaram para a hipótese de que a descontinuidade do ritmo constituiria um meio inicial, primitivo, de inscrição singular do significante no corpo dessa criança.

In this article we take up the proposition that music, in its rhythmic dimension, uniquely enables the production and circulation of signifiers in the utterances of children diagnosed with autism. We have studied video recorded sessions with an autistic boy with his therapist. From this study we more closely investigated several episodes that exemplify rhythmic manifestations by the boy. These events lead to the hypothesis that discontinuities in his rhythm constitute an initial and primitive means of unique inscriptions of the signifier on the boy's body.

Dans cet article, nous défendons l'hypothèse selon laquelle la qualité rythmique de la musique facilite, de façon singulière, la production et la circulation de signifiants dans les verbalisations des enfants autistes. Nous avons donc suivi des sessions d'enregistrement sur vidéo d'un garçon autiste avec sa thérapeute en découpant certains épisodes qui illustrent les manifestations rythmiques du garçon. À leur tour, ces exemples renforcent l'hypothèse que la discontinuité du rythme est un moyen primitif au travers duquel le signifiant s'inscrit sur le corps de l'enfant.

En este artículo asumimos la propuesta de que la música, en su dimensión rítmica, posibilitaría de manera singular la producción y circulación de significantes en las verbalizaciones del niño con diagnóstico de autismo. De esta manera, acompañamos sesiones grabadas en video de un niño autista con su terapeuta, de las cuales recortamos algunos episodios que ejemplifican las manifestaciones rítmicas del niño. Esas manifestaciones apuntaron hacia la hipótesis de que la discontinuidad del ritmo constituiría un medio inicial, primitivo, de descripción singular del significante en el cuerpo de ese niño.