Selective impairment of musical emotion recognition in patients with amnesic mild cognitive impairment and mild to moderate Alzheimer disease

Background Patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) and amnesic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) have deficits in emotion recognition. However, it has not yet been determined whether patients with AD and aMCI also experience difficulty in recognizing the emotions conveyed by music. This study was conducted to investigate whether musical emotion recognition is impaired or retained in patients with AD and aMCI.