The groundbreaking method was tested with success during continuous and monitored sessions for stroke patients who are left struggling to speak after enduring injury to the left part of their brain.
The therapy is termed Music Intonation Therapy (MIT). One of many doctors, Gottfried Schlaug, provided an instance where this theraphy for stroke patients showed a favorable outcome. The doctor recorded a video of an individual who had a stroke and couldn't say the lyrics of a birthday song. The patient can just pronounce the albhabets N and O. As soon as Dr. Schlaug requested him to sing the birthday song, the phrases "happy birthday to you" came out easily. Schlaug explained: "This patient utters meaningless sounds when we ask him to say the words but as soon as we asked him to sing, he was able to speak the words."
It Is Not a Coincidence
Whenever parents talk to kids, it is usually in a singsong or melodic manner. That may be no coincidence, experts point out, considering the fact that music along with language tend to be so elaborately associated within the human brain.
Experts are utilizing this essential link concerning song and speech to treat sufferers who have lost their capability to talk. There is proof that music may be used to assist people who have critical brain problems be able to talk again, researchers stated during the yearly conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The investigation team remains to be unclear on exactly how MIT helps these stroke patients. Dr. Schlaug provides one particular explanation. He said that our brain processes music in a different section from that which handles speech, however there are parts that overlap. "Music-making is a multisensory experience that simultaneously activates several systems in the brain and links and loops them together. It engages many regions of the brain," he explained. Music Intonation Therapy could be a very lengthy treatment. It could carry on for about 16 years and also involves by the hour therapy five days per week. What's promising is actually the advantages of MIT are often irreversible.
Medical practitioners have acknowledged for over a century that stroke patients who are unable to converse will often sing distinctly. The reason being is that the area of the human brain that processes language is actually independent from the part of the brain that deals with music.
This approach originated during the seventies, however it was overlooked, Dr Schlaug told the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 'We took the method another step by taking this therapy and really proving the efficacy of this,' he said.
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