Subject: Re: Musical abilities are among the last to be lost in cases of From: Thomas G Brennan <g_brennantg(at)TITAN.SFASU.EDU> Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 12:33:37 -0600Robert, melodic therapies as well as melodic assessments (excluding for fluency problems) are based not on performance musical abilities but on the fact that it has been found that both those with stroke induced aphasia as well as those with tbi who are still motorically functional, at least to some degre, are very often able to produce some language and imitative behaviors if a melody of any kind is used even when language is otherwise totally gone such as in global aphasia. For obvious reasons you can't normally seriously intend that your clinical clients sing their way through life but for some that is essentially what ends up happening. These cases are not just looking at some form of musical ability but some connection between right and left hemisphere. I have not seen much of this kind of reference in split brain research but the above is the basis for melodic therapy. I would suggest reading some authors such as Schuel, Jacobson, Eisenson, or any of the other major names in aphasia work from the '60s through the mid '80s for more on this as well as look at some of the references in some of the melodic therapy tests and therapy kits. Tom Tom Brennan KD5VIJ, CCC-A/SLP web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html