People who have a stroke can have difficulty recovering language and speech abilities due to the area of the brain responsible for these functions having been damaged.
So, some researchers decided to take a unique approach to helping these survivors heal and regain their speech and language abilities. The researchers decided to see if having stroke victims listen to vocal music, instrumental music or audiobooks would make a difference in their recovery. They were looking to see if a group of stroke patients had structural changes in their brains after three months of listening.
The researchers found that instrumental music and audiobooks had little positive impact on the patient’s language ability.
The difference was with the vocal music!
Vocal music strengthened the network in the brain’s frontal lobe which is responsible for language.
My guess is that they’re not talking about listening to Karaoke. They’re talking about listening to good quality vocal music.
My second guess is based on how Alzheimer’s Disease patient, who are not very responsive, immediately change to being responsive and even singing along when they are listening to the music that was their favorite music when they were younger.
The other positive aspect of listening to vocal music is that it can be started soon after the stroke occurred. Since stroke patients during this time period get little or no stimulation, especially if they have been hospitalized, this starts the brain on its rebuilding process in the areas that were damaged by the stroke.
So…get those headsets out and start playing their favorite songs!
(Reported What Doctors Don’t Tell You, October 2021)
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