It appears we are created to have the ability to sing more (for praising and worshiping the
Lord in singing) than to speak, please read the breaking news below. Let us think of it. . .
*Stroke victims
regain speech through singing*
US scientists are restoring speech to stroke
victims by getting them to
sing words instead of speaking them, a leading
neurologist says.
Gottfried Schlaug, an
associate professor of neurology at Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Centre and Harvard Medical
School, has found that
patients who have suffered a stroke in the left
side of the brain and
are unable to speak words are often able to sing
them.
He showed reporters at the annual meeting of the
American Association
for the Advancement of Science a video of a
patient with a stroke lesion
on the left side of the brain, whom he asked to
recite the words of the
birthday song.
The patient was unable to comply, and merely
repeated the letters N and
O.
But when Dr Schlaug
asked him to sing the song, while someone held the
patient's left hand and tapped it rhythmically,
the words "happy
birthday to you" came out clear as day.
"This patient has meaningless utterances when
we ask him to say the
words but as soon as we asked him to sing, he was
able to speak the
words," Dr Schlaug
said.
Another patient was taught to say, "I am
thirsty" by singing, while
another patient who had a large lesion on the left
side of the brain and
had for several years tried various therapies to
try to regain the power
of speech, all unsuccessful, was taught to say his
address.
Images of the brains of patients with stroke
lesions on the left side of
the brain - which is typically used more for
speech - show "functional
and structural changes" on the right side of
the brain after they have
undergone this form of therapy through song,
called Music Intonation
Therapy (MIT).
Dr Schlaug is currently
running a randomised clinical trial of MIT with
a view to gaining acceptance of the therapy in the
medical field.
Dr Schlaug says that in
the United States alone, MIT could potentially
help up to 70,000 nonverbal stroke victims to
retrieve the ability to
speak.
- AFP
-------------------------