A case of verbal and emotional prosody processing dissociation after a right temporal venous infarct
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
A case of verbal and emotional prosody processing dissociation after a right temporal venous infarct Julie Bourgeois–Vionnet 1 & Annie Moulin 2,3 & Marc Hermier 4 & Agathe Pralus 2,3 & Norbert Nighoghossian 1 Received: 5 October 2019 / Accepted: 22 November 2019 # Fondazione Società Italiana di Neurologia 2020
Dear Editor: The human voice contains, within its acoustic structure, a wealth of information on the speaker’s emotional state that are perceived with remarkable accuracy, in addition to verbal information per se [1]. Specific cortical areas within the upper bank of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) are involved in voice perception [2]. Although voice-selective regions were reported in the STS of both hemispheres, there seems to be a right-hemispheric asymmetry [3]. Abnormal voice perception after stroke is likely underestimated as comprehensive neuropsychological assessment is rarely performed; here, we report a case of emotion perception disorder for voices after a venous infarct involving these specific STS areas, associated with speech-in-noise and musical short-term memory deficits. A 33-year-old right-handed woman without prior medical history was referred to our stroke department due to severe headache for 10 days. On admission, neurological examination revealed a left visual extinction. Brain MRI showed a right lateral sinus thrombosis associated with a right temporal hemorrhagic venous infarct involving the superior, middle, and inferior temporal gyri (Fig. 1). Etiological workup was negative. She received anticoagulation treatment and headaches vanished within a week. During her hospital stay, the salient feature of her complaints consisted in a very unusual perception of voices. Conversations were perceived as tragic and, overwhelmed with emotion, she frequently broke into tears. She had the * Norbert Nighoghossian [email protected] 1
Stroke Department, Hôpital Neurologique Pierre Wertheimer, 69677 Bron, France
2
Lyon Neuroscience Research Center; CNRS, UMR5292; INSERM, U1028, F-69000 Lyon, France
3
University, Lyon 1, France
4
Neuroradiology Department, Hôpital Neurologique, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Bron, France
feeling that nurses and medical team members were permanently crying when talking to her. Voices on television were similarly distorted. In contrast, word understanding as well as writing and reading capacities were not affected. In light of these symptoms, we performed neuropsychological tests in two sessions, 5 and 17 days after hospital admission assessing various facets of auditory perception and cognition: emotion, speech perception in different kinds of noise background, and auditory short-term memory of both verbal and musical materials. Assessment was performed after patient informed consent delivery according to neuroscience ethical committee rules and following the agreement of committee for the protection of person’s CPPP. To study emotional prosody perception, sentences of neutral semantic content, pronounced by actors expressing
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