Musical and verbal memory dissociation in a patient with autoimmune encephalitis

Abstract

Music is emotionally arousing and activates different brain areas. Musicians with encephalitis spare musical memory. However, no prior studies have used delayed verbal and musical memory tasks in a patient with thalamic damage. The aim of the present study is to analyse a possible dissociation between verbal and musical memory in a patient with autoimmune encephalitis, who was an amateur musician. JC is a 67- years-old amateur musician with autoimmune encephalitis. He and 8 participants (musicians and non-musicians) were assessed through musical (novel excerpt recognition) and verbal memory tasks (word learning, recall and recognition), including a delayed memory task, a week later. The results showed JC had spared musical memory and impaired verbal memory, and a significant dissociation between them. The dissociation found could be due to the musical training brain plasticity. These findings support the idea of music stimuli as therapeutic tools for these patients.