Music can help restore speech after a stroke
Music might help restore speech after a stroke, according to a study presented at the congress of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Gottfried Schlaug of Harvard University and his team have shown that people who have lost the ability to speak after a stroke (CVA) causing lesions in the left hemisphere (where the center of the floor) could decide if the words they sang. A video, presented by the researcher, for example, showed a person incapable of pronouncing the words of the song Happy birthday to who could sing.
“The music is a multisensory experience that activates multiple brain regions and puts them in touch,” he says. The brain images show that music therapy, called “Intonation Music Therapy”, brings “functional and structural changes” in the right hemisphere (involving the region that corresponds to the center of the floor of the left hemisphere).