Is hemispheric language dominance relevant in musical hallucinations? Two case reports.

It has been suggested that musical hallucinations are often due to a focal brain lesion predominantly of right hemispheric pathologies. We report about two patients with musical hallucinations associated with a brain tumor of the right hemisphere. Although both patients were right-handed, one of them had a right hemispheric dominance for language as proven by the Wada test. The musical ability as measured by the Seashore test was not impaired. We conclude that the language dominance of the hemisphere is not primarily relevant for the development of musical hallucinations.