Research finds brain link for words, music, can help autism

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computerlove
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27 Feb 2010, 11:06 pm

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feb 20, 2010
Research finds brain link for words, music ability

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Words and music, such natural partners that it seems obvious they go together. Now science is confirming that those abilities are linked in the brain, a finding that might even lead to better stroke treatments.

Studies have found overlap in the brain's processing of language and 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.

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 multisensory experience, 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 there 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.

But, he cautioned, the work is geared toward people who have had a severe stroke on the left side of the brain and the therapy can take a long time.

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.

For example, she said, the trained brain gets better at detecting patterns in sounds, so that musicians are better at picking out the voice of a friend in a noisy restaurant.

"Musical experience improves abilities important in daily life," she said. "Playing an instrument may help youngsters better process speech in noisy classrooms and more accurately interpret the nuances of language that are conveyed by subtle changes in the human voice," Kraus said.

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."

New studies of brain waves, she noted, mimic the patterns of sound that the individual hears. Whether speech or instrumental music is heard, it is actually possible to record the brain's electronic waves and play them back to hear the sound - which she demonstrated with a series of recordings.

Aniruddh D. Patel of The Neurosciences 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 very different from tones and cords 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.



dustintorch
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27 Feb 2010, 11:16 pm

I'm not surprised. I'm sure listening to music constantly helped me better relate to, and communicate with other people.



poopylungstuffing
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28 Feb 2010, 3:30 am

I was too young at the time to really know for sure, but I am pretty sure i was taught to be verbal through singing...and I am a lot better at singing than i am at normal speech..and most of my normal speech is more like singing..., and singing/music has been a major interest of mine from an early age...I have pretty rotten aptitude for playing musical instruments and it has taken me a long time to be moderately functional at playing the piano and the various stringed instruments that I play..but I have been singing since I was very young...and it has always been a very large part of my life and my ability to relate to the world around me....singing and reading...

I come from a very musical family...my dad plays multiple musical instruments...and can easly pick up any instrument he tries......there are strong ASish traits that run in his family, though he has obsessive qualities, but very good social skills.....My uncle (his brother) is a strong musician too, as well as an inventor/architecht/engineer

My mom always played guitar...and so I was always around music from an early age, and i am pretty sure that helped me out..or else at least being from a musical background has helped me out, even though I am not a super awesome musician myself..although I have been known as a pretty strong singer...



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28 Feb 2010, 8:23 am

Interesting piece. Music is an area of intelligence often neglected.



CockneyRebel
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28 Feb 2010, 9:27 am

I've noticed that I've been doing a lot better, since I've started listening to music, again.


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Francis
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28 Feb 2010, 6:43 pm

Just my luck. I'm not a big music fan.



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28 Feb 2010, 7:01 pm

Music is my overobsession. Maybe it influenced to make me more agressive than my Aspie-highschool-classmate, who didn't like music. He was lost in the world, me only confused.

CONCLUSION: Possible!


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Douglas_MacNeill
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28 Feb 2010, 8:19 pm

I've read quite a lot of anecdotal evidence to the effect
that music therapy is said to be helpful for people with
autistic disorders in general, no matter how severe.

The story you just cited would jive with those anecdotes.