Music-based interventions for aphasia: A systematic review of clinical approaches and musical components in expressive language rehabilitation.

Authors

Elia Amighetti, Marco Guida, Alessandro Antonietti, Alice Cancer

Published in

Neuropsychological rehabilitation. Pages 1-42. Jun 20, 2026. Epub Jun 20, 2026.

Abstract

Music-based interventions have been employed in aphasia rehabilitation, modulating components such as rhythm, melody, and prosody to promote language recovery through the engagement of neuroplastic mechanisms. To address the lack of integrative reviews encompassing the full range of clinical applications, we conducted a systematic review of 33 peer-reviewed studies - including randomized controlled trials, pre-post designs, and single-case reports - that quantitatively assessed expressive oral language in patients with aphasia within the context of structured music-based protocols. Specifically, we aimed to comprehensively examine the clinical use of music-based interventions for aphasia, with a focus on the therapeutic role of specific musical components (e.g., melody, rhythm) and their neurofunctional implications for language recovery. Results revealed a range of beneficial interventions, showing improvements both in linguistic behaviour and underlying neural function. This review provides a comprehensive overview of music-based approaches addressed to patients with aphasia, offering a valuable insight into their clinical diversity and therapeutic potential.

PMID:
42322176
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 20 Jun 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.