Preserved musical abilities following right temporal lobectomy

It has been widely accepted that the right temporal lobe plays a major role in the processing of music. One of the main lines of evidence was derived from Milner's study, published in 1962, which reported that right temporal lobectomy led to a decline in patient scores on four of the sis subtests (Tonal Memory, Timbre, Loudness, and Time subtests) of the Seashore Measures of Musical Talents. That finding had led some surgeons and patients to hesitate in choosing right temporal lobectomy as a treatment fur intractable epilepsy. The authors examined performance on the Seashore Measures before and after operations in 20 patients with right temporal lobectomy and nine patients with left temporal lobectomy. No disturbances in the Seashore Measures were detected after temporal lobectomy on either side. The extent of these temporal lobectomies was smaller than that of the temporal lobectomies in Milner's study, as measured along the sylvian fissure (1.5-4 cm; mean 2.7 cm, standard deviation (SD) 0.92 cm) and the base of the temporal lobe (3.5-5.5 cm; mean 4.7 cm, SD 0.63 cm). These findings indicate that the region resected on right temporal lobectomy in the present study is not essential for basic musical processing.