Auditory agnosia: A review and report of recent evidence

Abstract

This chapter reviews some of the evidence regarding auditory agnosia provided by clinical studies of individual patients. It presents the results of experimental investigations undertaken to clarify some aspects of auditory agnosia clinical studies had left unresolved. The elaborate testing situation arranged for a patient of A. Kast, who was asked to identify the sound of a bombardon, a trumpet, a clarinet, and a violin played by a musician hidden behind a screen, was not a standard one. The methodological approach, the type of patients studied, and the collateral examinations employed were the same in both studies. In order to demonstrate that imperception was limited to speech sounds, the patient's reactions to nonverbal auditory stimuli were reported. Sensory amusia was occasionally reported to appear independently of aphasia or to linger on as the main residual symptom after a transient language disorder.