Affiliations: [a] Department of Occupational Therapy, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan | [b] Department of Music, Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan | [c] School of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Tapei, Taiwan | [d] Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Pei-Luen Tsai, Department of Occupational Therapy, National Cheng Kung University, 1 University Road, East District, Tainan City 701, Taiwan. Tel.: +886 6 235 3535; Ext.: 5916; Fax.: +886 6 237 6604; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Recent studies suggest that the positive emotion induced by pleasant music may improve cognitive functions. We used the single-subject design to study whether listening to preferred music may reduce unilateral neglect in two participants with post-stroke neglect. These participants were instructed to listen to their preferred music every day for 5 weeks, followed by 2 weeks of follow-up assessment. Outcome measures involved the Star Cancellation Test, the Line Bisection Test, and the visual exploration task. A combination of visual analysis and the two-standard-deviation band method was used for data analysis. Both participants showed significant intervention-related improvements on all outcome measures except the Line Bisection Test, on which one participant showed no improvement. The therapeutic effects were maintained during the follow-up phase. The findings suggest that positive emotion, evoked by preferred music, may be used to ameliorate unilateral neglect. Further research using controlled trials is warranted to validate the findings.
