Scientists have taught stroke patients to talk again by si
Scientists have taught stroke patients to talk again by singing instead of speaking words.
nging instead of speaking words.
The technique, known as ‘melodic intonation therapy’, led to patients recovering their speech after other attempts at rehabilitation had failed.
Doctors are now testing the therapy in 30 stroke patients to assess how many people who lose their speech after a stroke would benefit.
In Britain, 150,000 people suffer a stroke each year, of which some 67,000 are fatal and one fifth of people who survive experience some speech impairment.
This treatment appears to capitalise on the ‘plasticity’ of the brain’s neural connections, by training different parts of the brain to take over functions that are usually performed in another region.
Brain scans of patients whose stroke affected the left side of their brain showed functional and structural changes on the right side after they had received the therapy.
This article first appeared in issue 11 of benhealth, the magazine for Benenden Healthcare members.
