Ross, Elliott D. (1981)
ROSS, Elliott D. “The Aprosodias: Functional-Anatomic Organization of the Affective Components of Language in the Right Hemisphere.” Archives of Neurology 38 (Sep 1981): 561-569.
Describes ten cases of right-hemispheric brain damage which resulted in prosodic disorders of various types. Attempts to draw a direct comparison between these types of aprosodias, from right-hemispheric damage, to corresponding aphasias, due to analogous damage in the left hemisphere. The author argues that there are strong similarities between such cases of aphasia and corresponding types of aprosodia. The reason for expecting such analogies, or their relevance is not explained. Provides detailed descriptions of the symptoms of these aprosodias, along with detailed explanations of the extent and type of brain damage involved. Concludes:
It has been my recent experience, as attending neurologist, that the aprosodias are as commonly encountered on the clinical services as are the aphasias.
Such a statement, and the fact that this article is perhaps the first to categorize and detail these neurologically-based deficits to the comprehension and production of prosody and gesture in speech, points strongly at the need for expanded attention to these aspects of spoken language. Although these cases were noted for deficits of spoken language, none of the patients were examined for their functioning in spontaneous or imitative singing. Therefore the correspondence between processing of features in singing analogous to prosody in speech is undetermined.
