Exploring the Link Between Music and Language Recovery in Stroke Patients
- Ishaan S Ahuja
- Jun 6, 2024
- 4 min read
Wherever you go, to a musician, a doctor, a teacher, or a parent, all of them say the same thing: playing music is a full brain workout. It’s a combination of your hands, eyes, ears, and even legs sometimes, for example, when using pedals on the piano. Our brain makes all these body parts work together to produce beautiful music. I always wondered if this can help someone with a disability since playing music teaches you coordination and strengthens your finger independence/dexterity, ears, etc. And if playing music can be so great for you, then why not listening to it? This blog aims to discover the benefits of listening to music for people who have had strokes and other disabilities.
One of the most important ways music helps people of all abilities is by improving memory and, in the case of neurological issues, it can help relearn something that may have been forgotten. Such a scenario took place with 15-year-old Diobeth, who suffered a stroke in his freshman year of high school. One of the main problems caused by the stroke was aphasia, a condition inhibiting a patient’s ability to comprehend language and speak. He says, "The words and phrases I once knew came out only as mumbles.” Despite his impairment, Diobeth was able to overcome his challenges and speak again. But how? Because he had music on his side.
Before his stroke, Diobeth loved to listen to music and sing along with his favorite songs, which led his speech pathologist, Blake French, MS, CCC-SLP, CBIS, to incorporate music into their daily language sessions. Music actively involves many parts of the brain that are compromised during a stroke, including the cerebellum, auditory, visual, and occipital cortices, and most importantly, in this scenario, the temporal lobe, which is responsible for comprehending what we hear and language. Therefore, listening to and relearning familiar lyrics to his favorite songs allowed Diobeth’s brain to reactivate, slowly building up his abilities.
This situation isn’t unique to Diobeth; a case study in the scientific journal Brain explored how adults who suffered strokes and had previously listened to music daily recovered faster and experienced large improvements in relearning language.
One of the most famous music therapies used for treating people who have lost language abilities as a result of stroke or other neurological conditions is Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT). This music-based therapy uses pitches, melodies, and rhythms to help patients with aphasia relearn language and regain their ability to speak, starting with simple words like “food” and “water” and working up to phrases such as “I like to play” or “I love you.”
In MIT, phrases are sung on two pitches, or “melodies,” and tapped on the patient’s left hand once for each syllable. During a therapy session, the therapist shows the “goal word” to the patient using a cue, followed by humming the word or phrase at a constant rate of one syllable/second on two pitches twice while tapping the patient’s left hand once for each syllable. The patient then joins the therapist in singing the word/phrase while the therapist continues to tap the patient’s left hand. Eventually, the therapist tapers off and only taps the patient’s left hand while they sing, just as a support. The therapist then has the patient repeat this phrase and then generally asks a question or gives a statement that requires the patient to respond with that phrase, allowing the patient to master the phrase.
Why do intoning phrases work with tapping a patient’s left hand specifically? The purpose of intoning phrases during MIT is to engage the brain's right hemisphere because of its strong role in processing information and music. The brain's right hemisphere is generally better at processing signals or speech at a slower pace, whereas the left hemisphere is better at processing faster signals. However, the left hemisphere of the brain is generally the hemisphere impacted by strokes, therefore compromising a patient’s ability to process signals and speech quickly. Therefore, slowly singing syllables and words/phrases allows the brain's right hemisphere to train and recognize signals while the left hemisphere recovers.
There have been countless studies that focus on MIT to see if it is an effective treatment method for people who have had strokes or other disabilities. For example, Baker conducted a case study where two patients, both of whom had a stroke in the left hemisphere of the brain, went through MIT. Patient 1 was a 32-year-old female nine months after a stroke, and Patient 2 was a 30-year-old male four months after a stroke. Both patients had 30-minute sessions three to eight times weekly for 4-27 months. However, Patient 1 did have a therapist, while Patient 2 did not. Patient 1’s growth was measured using a functional 180-word/phrase language, and Patient 2’s growth was measured using a functional 45-word language. Both patients showed significant improvement in language and speaking abilities. By the end of the time period, Patient 1 had learned a language of 148 words/phrases, and Patient 2 could learn 30 words without assistance.
After exploring the impacts of listening to music on the brain and how it has supported people with disabilities, I think it’s a great idea to use therapies such as MIT instead of some traditional therapies to support patients who have strokes or disabilities for the simple reason that MIT and other music-based therapies not only are beneficial and do make a difference for someone with a disability, but also provide a fun and relaxing treatment through music. Incorporating music-based therapies into the treatment plans of many patients with disabilities, I feel, will not only be beneficial and fun for them but also encourage and motivate patients to give their all during therapy, as they would be having fun at the same time.
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