The impact of cerebellar disorders on musical ability

•Patients with cerebellar disorders show impaired musical ability.•Patients with Machado–Joseph disease perform worse than with cerebellar infarction.•Cognition in cerebellar disorders can be evaluated by testing musical ability.

BackgroundThe cerebellum contributes not only to motor coordination but also to cognitive processing. Emphasizing the cerebro–cerebellar connectivity, present literature declares a decisive role of the cerebellum in music perception.MethodsPatients with cerebellar disorders (n = 15) due to infarction or genetically caused degeneration were tested on their musical ability and compared to matched healthy control subjects. We used a validated and standardized test of musical ability including the reproduction of rhythm and meter, melody comparison, emotion identification, pitch discrimination and the recognition of familiar melodies.ResultsThe patient group presented significantly lower scores in the subtests meter, melody comparison and emotion identification as compared to healthy control subjects. Rhythm reproduction and pitch discrimination were not affected by cerebellar disorders.DiscussionTesting musical ability in cerebellar disorders may serve as an additional tool to detect and quantify cognitive deficits, namely for music perception. As a consequence, it might be that musical stimulation can be helpful in cognitive impairment due to cerebellar lesions.