Auditory agnosia due to incision of splenium corporis callosi

The symptoms in a case of auditory agnosia are described. The patient, a 13-year-old boy, underwent surgical operation for pinealoma, in which the splenium of corpus callosum was incised. After the operation he suffered from auditory agnosia. There were pure word-deafness and musical agnosia. The inner language was intact and the ability to read and write was unimpaired. Standard pure tone audiometry revealed a slight bilateral hearing loss at the low frequencies. With the speech audiogram, the verbal perception was poor in both ears, especially the left. On the other hand, the musical test showed the melody perception was poorer in the right ear. Within 2 months of the episode, the patient recovered from auditory agnosia to normal limits.