D-089 | Music-based interventions and rhythm processing in a person with traumatic brain injury: single case study.

Disorders of the Nervous System
Author: Marianela Pacheco | Email: marianelapacheco@hotmail.com

Marianela Pacheco^1°2°3°4°, Dana Guber^4°, Jessica Del Punta4^°5°,  Gustavo Gasaneo^4°6°

^1° Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina
^2° Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación (ICIC), Universidad Nacional del Sur – CONICET, Bahía Blanca, Argentina
^3° Universidad Provincial del Sudoeste (UPSO), Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
^4° Instituto de Física del Sur, Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional del Sur, CONICET, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Argentina
^5° Departamento de Matemática, Universidad Nacional del Sur, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Argentina
^6° Centro Integral de Neurociencias Aplicadas, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Argentina

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause motor, cognitive, sensory and behavioral alterations due to injuries to the central nervous system. Music-based interventions are frequently used in the rehabilitation of people with TBI to improve motor, language, cognitive, affective, and sensory processing functions. This work presents a single case study, focused on describing rhythm processing in a person with severe TBI. An experiment was carried out where the participant had to follow the rhythm of a metronome while percussing with his hand, evaluating his performance at three different moments during the music therapy treatment. Audio analysis was conducted to support clinical assessments. A correlational and longitudinal study was conducted to examine the relationship between the sound generated by the person and the metronome in each instance. The results indicated that music-based interventions favored the acquisition of temporal skills that improved musical performance and rhythm processing.