General Chat

At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, some exciting research has been revealed that may hold the key to helping stroke victims regain their speech.

By using therapy that involves singing, the scientists believe they can ‘rewire’ the brain. Singing uses a different part of the brain than speech, so if the ‘speech centre’ is damaged by the stroke, the patients can be taught to use the ‘singing centre’ instead.

Neurology professor Gottfried Schlaug who led the trial said; "Music might be an alternative medium to engage parts of the brain that are otherwise not engaged,"

In the trial, the team used "melodic intonation therapy" to illicit a response from the brain, and while this is already an established method of rehabilitation for stoke patients, Professor Schlaug’s team were the first to combine this therapy with brain imaging to show what’s happening in the brain as patients learn to sing their words.

He noted that as patients learn to put their words to melodies, the crucial connections form on the right side of their brains, where the speech centre is located.

After just one session, patients who could not form any words learned to say “I am thirsty” by combining the syllables with the notes of a melody.

I read about this in the paper,Len,but you have explained it more fully,
so that I can understand it better.I think that this technique could possibly be applied to help people who stutter to talk more fluently as well.It
possibly has other applications also.

I have personal experience of this.
My Aunt had a severe stroke and could not talk - but she could sing songs in Welsh perfectly.
Now my sister is totally incapacitated by strokes, completely unable to speak. She could also sing along with us at first, but seems to have lost that ability now.

Joanna

Do you remember Alan Breeze,Billy Cotton's singer? It seems he had a dreadfully incapacitating stammer when talking.He had to give evidence in court once and the only way he could do it was by singing.

I have been interested to hear the way my dad has learned o find his words again.At first he just strung random words together but now it seems as if the brain is presenting him with a selection of relevant words and he sometimes chooses the wrong one.

He says he seems to get his words wrong more often lately but I explained that,at ninety,he was supposed to do that anyway.