How Does Singing Help Aphasia Patients Find Their Voices?

In the United States, roughly 180,000 new aphasia cases crop up every year., according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). Right now, one out of every 272 Americans wrestle with aphasia.

Cerebrovascular accidents, or strokes, remain the single greatest driver of aphasia, making up about a third of cases. And while aphasia ignores gender differences, afflicting men and women equally, it tends to hit older Americans more frequently.

And anywhere between 25 percent and 40 percent of stroke survivors develop aphasia because of damage done to the brain’s language-processing centers. This also explains why most aphasia patients suffer from a hampered ability to comprehend or replicate spoken or written languages.

Finally, a 2022 global study found a wide variance in cases: Researchers combed through 75 articles from 43 different countries – which appeared between 2000 and 2021 – and reported the “presence of aphasia in 7%–77% of all individuals with stroke. Rates were similar between high- and middle-income countries.”

Hope on the Horizon

Not long ago, researchers at the University of Helsinki showed that sung music can help stroke patients regain their voices. Now, those researchers have found out how. A paper explaining the new research appears in the new eNeuro journal.

The scientists discovered that singing actually repairs the structural language network of the brain.

“For the first time, our findings demonstrate that the rehabilitation of patients with aphasia through singing is based on neuroplasticity changes, that is, the plasticity of the brain,” University of Helsinki Researcher Aleksi Sihvonen said in a press release.

Singing Rebuilds Language Pathways

According to the study results, singing increased the volume of grey matter in the language regions of the left frontal lobe and improved tract connectivity, in the language network of both the left and right hemispheres.

“These positive changes were associated with patients’ improved speech production,” Sihvonen added.

The research team worked with 54 aphasia patients for this study. More than two dozen of them underwent MRI scans at the research project’s start and end. The researchers took a closer look at the rehabilitative effect of singing. The team relied on choir singers, music therapy, and at-home singing exercises to do that.

Aphasia is more than an inconvenience. It can impede anyone’s everyday activities, act as a drag on one’s quality of life, and quickly spiral into social isolation.

But Sihvonen pointed out that singing can be a cost-effective alternative, or supplement, to conventional rehabilitation. It can also work as a rehab for mild speech disorders in cases when the patient has few options.

“Patients can also sing with their family members, and singing can be organized in healthcare units as a group-based, cost-efficient rehabilitation,” Sihvonen advised.

Further Reading

Researchers Find Link Between Rising Stroke Rates and Changing Temperatures

Strokes Still Hit Black Americans Earlier, Research Shows

Fluoxetine for Stroke: A Mixed Bag of Outcomes