Music therapy interventions in neurorehabilitation for post-stroke aphasia: a scoping review

Abstract

Post-stroke aphasia impairs functional communication and psychosocial well-being, and music-based interventions have been proposed as a complementary approach to its rehabilitation. However, the literature remains heterogeneous in the techniques used, goals addressed, and the outcomes reported, with limited synthesis of how interventions map onto specific aphasia presentations. This review therefore aimed to map the range of music therapy interventions, their delivery parameters, and the outcomes reported in post-stroke aphasia rehabilitation. Following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a systematic search was conducted across four electronic databases (PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and PsycArticles) alongside hand-searching of key field-specific journals. The major inclusion criteria comprised peer-reviewed primary research studies published between 2000 and 2025 that evaluated music therapy interventions for adult stroke survivors with post-stroke aphasia. Fifteen studies met the eligibility criteria. The analysis of the included studies illustrated a prominent focus on Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) models, particularly Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), alongside a diversification of non-MIT methods such as the SIPARI method, Therapeutic Singing, and community choirs. The extracted data indicates that neurorehabilitation in this context is not a uniform procedure; rather, clinical applications, hierarchical complexities, and therapeutic dosages were observed to vary, often corresponding to the patient's specific aphasia subtype (e.g., Global, Broca's, Wernicke's) and stroke recovery phase. Ultimately, this review suggests that music therapy may offer an adaptable, patient-centered approach. By categorizing subtype-by-intervention applications, this review provides a descriptive clinical framework and identifies the need for future research to avoid pooling heterogeneous aphasia subtypes and to investigate under-represented NMT techniques.