Are Musical Obsessions a Temporal Lobe Phenomenon?

Abstract

Obsessive musical tunes have been described in some cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The authors present 2 cases of patients with musical obsessions, including findings from functional brain imaging. Both patients, 1 with idiopathic OCD and 1 with symptoms secondary to head trauma, demonstrated decreased blood flow in temporal lobes. This finding is consistent with previous literature on musical and auditory hallucinations.