Music, Words & The Brain
My wife’s mother is 96-years-old and Julie is one of four generations of singers with perfect pitch. When Mum was confused and afraid, I suggested she sing, "When You’re Smiling." When she did that we realized that she not only became confident and happy ~ she could remember all the words. We tried other songs she had known like, "Amazing Grace," and sure enough she sang every verse and was proud and smiling. Dementia had caused her fear, frustration and even anger and outright belligerence. She allegedly punched the male nurse once when he was a bit rough in the handling of her transferal from the bed to the wheelchair.
Now she is singing more and remembering things that other people cannot remember. Julie is much more content now. She used to dread going to see her mother at the nursing home. It was an obligation she carried on because she loves her mother. The good news, is she sent her relatives a video of her mother singing and they were all thrilled at her performance.
RESEARCH FINDS BRAIN LINK FOR WORDS, MUSIC ABILITY. Like those who stutter, singing improves the links within the brain. A person who stutters does not stutter when they sing. Now science is confirming that those abilities are linked in the brain, a finding that might even lead to better stroke treatments. At the age of seven my father required all his sons (three boys) to pick an instrument and so we did. I played the accordion and sang right along with the music. I learned fractions and improved my ability in math. After a heart attack at 31-years-old, it was the music that brought me back from the brink of disaster. Words and music, such natural partners that it seems obvious they go together.
Shyness was a problem I confronted throughout my childhood into my late 30s, but dad had helped me to overcome that with music and would often set up the music stand and hand me my accordion in a restaurant or at a picnic. St. Joseph Day parties would consist of eating and singing. People enjoyed singing together and there were no arguments, and so I published a "Sing-A-Long" book with all the words and an alphabetical listing on the cover. It wasn’t fancy, but it brought strangers together and smiling faces made new friends.
Randolph E. Schmid, AP Science Writer reported this discovery on Saturday, February 20, 2010 and reported the findings which Julie printed out February 23, 2010.
Studies have found overlap in the brain’s processing of language an instrumental music, and new research suggests that intensive musical therapy may help improve speech in stroke patients, researchers said Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In addition, researchers said music education can help children with developmental dyslexia or autism more accurately use speech. Julie’s grandson has responded so well to music and singing and I believe in the worth of music in overall health and development of brain and lungs. Family gatherings were always a joy when I took out the accordion and handed out the "Sing-A-Long" sheets. So you see, not all is responsive or required to resolve health issues in the way of pills and surgery.
People who have suffered a severe stroke on the left side of the brain and cannot speak can sometimes learn to communicate through singing, Gottfried Schlaug, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School told the meeting.
"Music making is a multi-sensory, activating links to several parts of the brain," Schlaug said. Schlaug showed a video of one patient who could only make meaningless sounds learning to say "I am thirsty," by singing the words, and another was able to sing "happy birthday." "If you have someone who is nonverbal and they can say they are hungry or thirsty or ask where the bathroom is that’s an improvement," Schlaug said of the Melodic Intonation Therapy. As long as a century ago there were reports of stroke victims who couldn’t talk but who could sing, he said. Now, they are doing trials to see if music can be used as a therapy. Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University, reported that new studies show that musical training enhances the brain’s ability to do other things. When people first learn to talk and when they talk to babies they often use musical patterns in their speech, she noted.
"People’s hearing systems are fine-tuned by the experiences they’ve had with sound throughout their lives. Music training is not only beneficial for processing music stimuli. We’ve found that years of music training may also improve how sounds are processed for language and emotion," Kraus said in prepared remarks. Kraus said "the very responses that are enhanced in musicians are deficient in clinical populations such as children with developmental dyslexia and autism."
Aniruddh D. Patel of the Neuroscience Institute in San Diego said new studies show that music doesn’t involve just hot spots in the brain, but large swaths on both sides of the brain. "Nouns and verbs are different from the tones and chords and harmony, but the parts of the brain that process them overlap," he said. Some scientists, among them Charles Darwin, have speculated that musical ability in humans might have developed before language, " Patel said.
And so, my thanks to my late father for all that he gave me when he decided to buy me an accordion and include me in 100-piece bands that played at Kleinhan’s Music Hall before a packed house. Whenever I faced the most difficult times of my life, it was my accordion and the wisdom and sounds of the music that caused me to rebound. Julie’s mother is a living, breathing example of the miracle of music therapy. And thanks to Mrs. Lieberman, my music teacher in 7th grade, who decided to feature me as a soloist performer at Tech High School. As shy and fearful as I was before the performance, it all soon took flight from my mind as soon as I began playing "Dark Eyes." In 1945 my father decided to take me to the radio station to audition for "Uncle Bill’s Hour" and Aunt Sally played "School Days." At seven years old my father had enough faith in me to take a shy little boy into the limelight and it resulted in my winning a pair of shoes from Liberty Shoes and a book of green stamps. Another performance the following Sunday resulted in the remark that, "Little Stanley received most of his votes (a 2-cent postcard) from the "suburbs," even if little Stanley didn’t know where the suburbs were.
The rest of the story involves a very successful son who was given his first accordion while still in the crib. I never gave him a lesson on the accordion, but at three he could play every song and today, whenever the stress of his work needs to be attended to, he sits at his grand piano and plays the most beautiful music to soothe his nerves and fill his brain with the sound of music that resets his mood to one of complete serenity. He called the other day to excitedly report that his daughter (my granddaughter) is a gifted child and is happily playing on her Yamaha keyboard. She’s nine-years-old and so the beat goes on and all because of the "Sound of Music."
Now she is singing more and remembering things that other people cannot remember. Julie is much more content now. She used to dread going to see her mother at the nursing home. It was an obligation she carried on because she loves her mother. The good news, is she sent her relatives a video of her mother singing and they were all thrilled at her performance.
RESEARCH FINDS BRAIN LINK FOR WORDS, MUSIC ABILITY. Like those who stutter, singing improves the links within the brain. A person who stutters does not stutter when they sing. Now science is confirming that those abilities are linked in the brain, a finding that might even lead to better stroke treatments. At the age of seven my father required all his sons (three boys) to pick an instrument and so we did. I played the accordion and sang right along with the music. I learned fractions and improved my ability in math. After a heart attack at 31-years-old, it was the music that brought me back from the brink of disaster. Words and music, such natural partners that it seems obvious they go together.
Shyness was a problem I confronted throughout my childhood into my late 30s, but dad had helped me to overcome that with music and would often set up the music stand and hand me my accordion in a restaurant or at a picnic. St. Joseph Day parties would consist of eating and singing. People enjoyed singing together and there were no arguments, and so I published a "Sing-A-Long" book with all the words and an alphabetical listing on the cover. It wasn’t fancy, but it brought strangers together and smiling faces made new friends.
Randolph E. Schmid, AP Science Writer reported this discovery on Saturday, February 20, 2010 and reported the findings which Julie printed out February 23, 2010.
Studies have found overlap in the brain’s processing of language an instrumental music, and new research suggests that intensive musical therapy may help improve speech in stroke patients, researchers said Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In addition, researchers said music education can help children with developmental dyslexia or autism more accurately use speech. Julie’s grandson has responded so well to music and singing and I believe in the worth of music in overall health and development of brain and lungs. Family gatherings were always a joy when I took out the accordion and handed out the "Sing-A-Long" sheets. So you see, not all is responsive or required to resolve health issues in the way of pills and surgery.
People who have suffered a severe stroke on the left side of the brain and cannot speak can sometimes learn to communicate through singing, Gottfried Schlaug, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School told the meeting.
"Music making is a multi-sensory, activating links to several parts of the brain," Schlaug said. Schlaug showed a video of one patient who could only make meaningless sounds learning to say "I am thirsty," by singing the words, and another was able to sing "happy birthday." "If you have someone who is nonverbal and they can say they are hungry or thirsty or ask where the bathroom is that’s an improvement," Schlaug said of the Melodic Intonation Therapy. As long as a century ago there were reports of stroke victims who couldn’t talk but who could sing, he said. Now, they are doing trials to see if music can be used as a therapy. Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University, reported that new studies show that musical training enhances the brain’s ability to do other things. When people first learn to talk and when they talk to babies they often use musical patterns in their speech, she noted.
"People’s hearing systems are fine-tuned by the experiences they’ve had with sound throughout their lives. Music training is not only beneficial for processing music stimuli. We’ve found that years of music training may also improve how sounds are processed for language and emotion," Kraus said in prepared remarks. Kraus said "the very responses that are enhanced in musicians are deficient in clinical populations such as children with developmental dyslexia and autism."
Aniruddh D. Patel of the Neuroscience Institute in San Diego said new studies show that music doesn’t involve just hot spots in the brain, but large swaths on both sides of the brain. "Nouns and verbs are different from the tones and chords and harmony, but the parts of the brain that process them overlap," he said. Some scientists, among them Charles Darwin, have speculated that musical ability in humans might have developed before language, " Patel said.
And so, my thanks to my late father for all that he gave me when he decided to buy me an accordion and include me in 100-piece bands that played at Kleinhan’s Music Hall before a packed house. Whenever I faced the most difficult times of my life, it was my accordion and the wisdom and sounds of the music that caused me to rebound. Julie’s mother is a living, breathing example of the miracle of music therapy. And thanks to Mrs. Lieberman, my music teacher in 7th grade, who decided to feature me as a soloist performer at Tech High School. As shy and fearful as I was before the performance, it all soon took flight from my mind as soon as I began playing "Dark Eyes." In 1945 my father decided to take me to the radio station to audition for "Uncle Bill’s Hour" and Aunt Sally played "School Days." At seven years old my father had enough faith in me to take a shy little boy into the limelight and it resulted in my winning a pair of shoes from Liberty Shoes and a book of green stamps. Another performance the following Sunday resulted in the remark that, "Little Stanley received most of his votes (a 2-cent postcard) from the "suburbs," even if little Stanley didn’t know where the suburbs were.
The rest of the story involves a very successful son who was given his first accordion while still in the crib. I never gave him a lesson on the accordion, but at three he could play every song and today, whenever the stress of his work needs to be attended to, he sits at his grand piano and plays the most beautiful music to soothe his nerves and fill his brain with the sound of music that resets his mood to one of complete serenity. He called the other day to excitedly report that his daughter (my granddaughter) is a gifted child and is happily playing on her Yamaha keyboard. She’s nine-years-old and so the beat goes on and all because of the "Sound of Music."
posted by Stan Kent at
10:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home