Music listening induces short-term changes in attention in post-stroke aphasia

Purpose: People with aphasia (PWA) with cognitive deficits have poorer treatment outcomes than those without. Yet, aphasia therapy rarely targets cognition, which may contribute to the continued variability observed in aphasia treatment outcomes. Listening to music has been shown to positively impact cognition in neurotypical adults. The purpose of this study was to extend this large body of research into PWA by investigating whether listening to music improves attention in PWA. Method: Forty-three PWA were assigned to listen to music characterized as happy (major mode, fast tempo) or sad (minor mode, slow tempo), or no music for 10 minutes. Attention was measured before and after music listening using the Attention Network Task, which measures three types of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control. Mixed ANOVAs were used to explore how each type of attention changed after music listening by group and aphasia severity. Results: Our results demonstrate that listening to happy music improved orienting attention, regardless of aphasia severity. Happy music listening also improved alerting attention for individuals with moderate-severe aphasia. Executive control attention was not modulated by music listening. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that music listening has the potential to improve attention in PWA. While we recommend further research in this area to better understand the extent and underlying mechanisms of music-induced changes in attention, SLPs may want to consider incorporating music listening into their treatment of PWA.