Boundaries of separability between melody and rhythm in music discrimination: a neuropsychological perspective

The detailed study of a patient who suffered from a severe amelodia without arhythmia as a consequence of bilateral temporal lobe damage revealed that the processing of melodic information is at least partially separable from the processing of rhythmic information. This dissociation was replicated across different sets of material, was supported by the presence of a reversed association, and was maintained in conditions that promote integration in the normal brain. These results argue against the view that melody and rhythm are treated as a unified dimension throughout processing. At the same time, they support the view that integration takes place after early separation of the two dimensions.