Musical hallucinations in elderly patients with visuospatial impairment: two case reports

Submitted: 15 September 2016
Accepted: 19 December 2016
Published: 18 January 2017
Abstract Views: 2023
PDF: 1008
HTML: 1793
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Musical hallucinations are an uncommon type of auditory hallucinations, they widely occur in elderly. Our group analyzed medical history, pharmacological therapy, neuropsychological pattern, audiometric testing, electroencephalogram, cerebral magnetic resonance and cerebral fludeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) of two patients. FDGPET showed in both patients hypometabolism pronounced in posterior regions. In particular the medial-inferior temporal cortex and the occipital associative areas were affected. Moreover, neuropsychological pattern suggested a visuospatial-executive deficit, conformed to the occipital involvement. Our reported cases might suggest that musical hallucinations have been arisen from a combination of peripheral and central dysfunction. A further explanation might be that musical hallucinations result from multiple white matter lacunar lesions due to small vascular events. A question is whether musical hallucinations might be primarily associated with occipital areas hypometabolism and visuospatial alterations typically associated with Levy body dementia (LBD).

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Luppi, C., Santagata, F., Marchetti, M., Bottignole, G., Sapone, P., Massaia, M., & Isaia, G. (2017). Musical hallucinations in elderly patients with visuospatial impairment: two case reports. Geriatric Care, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.4081/gc.2016.6288