Dissociations between musical semantic memory and verbal memory in a patient with behavioral variant frontotemporal...

Patients with dementia show dissociations between musical semantic memory (i.e., spared musical lexicon) and other memory modalities, except in some severe cases. We aim to study, from a neuropsychological point of view, the dissociation between musical semantic memory compared to language and verbal memory in a patient with severe Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD). We hypothesize a single dissociation between these domains will be found, with sparing of musical semantic memory.

LC, a patient with severe bvFTD, and three matched controls were assessed through language, semantic, and episodic memory, and musical semantic memory tasks. The control group had similar music taste as LC: to participate as controls, tango must be one of their favorite musical genres.

LC showed impairment in all Verbal Memory tasks, but not in musical tasks. There was a dissociation between musical semantic memory, and language and verbal semantic memory.

The musical lexicon can be preserved in advanced stages of dementia, which supports the idea that music can be a therapeutic tool in patients with severe dementia.