O músico aprisionado na mente afásica: a história trágica de Maurice Ravel

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is defined as the insidious onset and progressive loss of linguistic abilities in the absence of major deficits in other areas of cognition or in activities of daily living, not explained by a focal brain lesion but rather a selective degeneration of the language- dominant hemisphere. Here we report the interesting story of the most famous patient presenting with PPA, the French composer Maurice Ravel. In the last years of his life, the composer developed a progressive aphasia and apraxia (presumably in the context of a general Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration spectrum disorder) that culminated in a total inability to communicate both in verbal and musical terms. The implications of this condition in his last creative works are also addressed.