Queen Bohemian rhapsody (original karaoke version)

abba dancing queen (karaoke)

Broadband Listening

Broadband technologies have revolutionized the way the world sends and views information. With a click of a button, megabytes of visual and audio stimuli at our fingertips thanks to new developments in DSL, cable, and radio transmissions that implement broadband. Broadband refers to the signaling method that uses a wide array of frequencies. Much the same way as broadband is used, our ears pick up a relatively large range of frequencies and transmit them via the auditory nerve to a multitude of processing centers; and just like technology when it does not work, disruption of the auditory pathways can cause serious problems. Aphasias like Wernike’s aphasia and Broca’s aphasia as well as lesions in the cochlear nucleus show just how many processing areas there are in the brain that give rise to our reality of speech. Especially when you get into the

Language and personality

I’m reading Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks, and came upon this quote:

We are a linguistic species — we turn to language to express whatever we are thinking, and it is usually there for us instantly. But for those with aphasia, the inability to communicate verbally may be almost unbearably frustrating and isolating (…).

I’ve met a few people with aphasia, and for those with mainly expressive aphasia this is normally the case; they are frustrated and saddened by their loss of language. But I still wonder about global aphasia; is it possible for a person with global aphasia, who cannot express or understand language, to still be the same person as he or she was before the onset of aphasia? So much of the personality seems to be interlinked with language, and it’s hard to imagine that the personality is somehow intact when the language is severely damaged.

As I was writing this, I realized that I’m not really sure how I would define personality, so I looked it up in Merriam-Webster.

Personality:

1 a: the quality or state of being a person

b: personal existence

2 a: the condition or fact of relating to a particular person; specifically : the condition of referring directly to or being aimed disparagingly or hostilely at an individual

b: an offensively personal remark personalities>

3 a: the complex of characteristics that distinguishes an individual or a nation or group; especially : the totality of an individual’s behavioral and emotional characteristics

b: a set of distinctive traits and characteristics personality of the city>

4 a: distinction or excellence of personal and social traits; also : a person having such quality

b: a person of importance, prominence, renown, or notoriety personality>

HealingMusicEnterprises.com

Audiences today are clamoring for information about how music heals. Dr. Alice Cash is the person who can deliver.

Physicians and medical studies have shown the many varied uses of music and sound for healing purposes as well as wellness. From Alzheimer patients to lullabies for mother - baby bonding, music does what nothing else can. Healing does not mean curing; healing music refers the improvement of symptoms and the improvement of chronic or temporary conditions. Some of the things music can do FOR YOU:

Stabilize heart-rate Improve the immune system Lower blood pressure Stabilize blood pressure Decrease prescription medications

Energize the body Calm and soothe the body & mind Bring back happy & comforting memories Distract from pain

From Singing to Speaking: Suggestions For Using Music With People With Aphasia

The following is excerpted from the article “From Singing to speaking,” Stroke Connection Magazine, September/October 2005

Singing familiar songs is psychologically and emotionally uplifting. Provide opportunities for individuals with aphasia to sing their favorite songs. In addition to purchasing albums, put together tapes or CDs of their “all-time” favorites.

It is now possible to legally purchase and download songs from the Internet to record them on CDs or digital MP3 players that store many songs.

Make singing a part of social events that might otherwise be difficult for a person with aphasia.

Good candidates for melodic intonation therapy have:

severely restricted speech that may be limited to nonsense words or syllables except when singing
along to popular songs;
poor ability to repeat words spoken by others;
relatively good ability to understand the speech of others;
good motivation, cooperation and attentiveness; and
a single, left hemisphere lesion that spares Wernicke’s area (the speech comprehension center of the brain).
If this seems like a match, survivors should ask a speech-language pathologist to determine whether an individual with severely restricted speech output might be a good candidate for melodic intonation therapy. The program, including a manual, videotape and stimulus cards, can be implemented by family members. For more information on how to obtain it, call 1-888-488-7653 (1-888-4STROKE).

The Music and Neuroimaging Lab

The Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess and Harvard Medical School

Mission Statement

The human brain has the remarkable ability to adapt in response to changes in the environment over the course of a lifetime. This is the mechanism for learning, growth, and normal development. Similar changes or adaptations can also occur in response to focal brain injuries, e.g., partially-adapted neighboring brain regions or functionally-related brain systems can either substitute for some of the lost function or develop alternative strategies to overcome a disability.

Through ongoing research, the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory’s mission is to:

• Reveal the perceptual and cognitive aspects of music processing including the perception and memory for pitch, rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic stimuli.
• Investigate the use of music and musical stimuli as an interventional tool for educational and therapeutic purposes.
• Reveal the behavioral and neural correlates of learning, skill acquisition, and brain adaptation in response to changes in the environment or brain injury in the developing and adult brain.
• Reveal the determinants and facilitators for recovery from brain injury.

Projects

The Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory is currently involved in a variety of neurology/neuroscience research projects, ranging from studies examining the effects of instrumental music training on children’s brain and cognitive development to studies examining the neural correlates of absolute pitch, congenital and acquired amusia, neural effects of auditory and motor learning, neural correlates of singing and speaking in normal subjects as well as aphasic patients, to studies examining the effects of therapies that could facilitate the recovery from aphasia and sensorimotor deficits after a stroke. We have also recently begun to examine the effects of a non-invasive, electrical stimulation technique (TDCS - transcranial direct current stimulation) on blocking or enhancing regional brain activity.

• Children’s Music Studies
• Adult Musician Studies
• Amusia Studies
• Absolute Pitch Studies
• Acute-Stroke Studies
• Stroke Recovery Studies
• Aphasia-Therapy Studies

Our Main Research Interests

1. The Brain that Makes Music or the Musical Brain. We are studying the cerebral correlates of musical abilities and the functional/structural cerebral adaptations of music training using musicians as a model. This work is supported by the NSF and the International Foundation for Music Research (IFMR). For a sample of recent papers please see Publications (Schlaug et al., 1995a,b; Amunts et al., 1997; Jaencke et al., 1997; Schlaug, 2001; Keenan et al., 2001; Muente et al., 2002; Lee et al., 2003; Hutchinson et al., 2003; Gaser et al., 2003).

2. The Effects of Music Training on Cognitive and Brain Development in Children. In longitudinal and cross-sectional studies we are examining the effects of learning to play a musical instrument as well as the effects of enriched music instruction in school on various behavioral and cognitive measures as well as brain development. This work is supported by NSF, the International Foundation for Music Research, and the Grammy Foundation.

3. Neural Correlates of Absolute Pitch. We are examining the structural and functional brain markers of this unique ability. We are also interested in the incidence of this ability in special populations and the familial occurrence of absolute pitch. For a sample of recent papers see Publications (Schlaug et al., 1995; Keenan et al., 2001; Schlaug, 2003).

4. Behavioral and Neural Effects of Auditory Learning. We are examining the behavioral and brain effects of acquiring auditory skills in adults, mainly in those without any musical training.

5. Pathophysiology of Acute Human Stroke. We are using new magnetic resonance imaging methods such as perfusion and diffusion weighted imaging to select patients for treatment, to determine the benefit/risk ratios of experimental treatment approaches, and to assess tissue outcome after an intervention is done. This work is supported by the NIH and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. For a sample of recent papers please see Publications (Schlaug et al., 1997, 1999; Fink et al., 2002a,b; Selim et al., 2002; Linfante et al., 2002).

6. Determinants and Facilitators of Stroke Recovery. W are using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to study stroke recovery. This research is supported by the Dana Foundation and the NIH. For a sample of relevant papers please see Publications (Hutchinson et al., 2002; Kobayashi et al., 2002; Mottaghy et al., 2002).

7. Singing and Speaking in Normal Subjects and in Patients with Aphasia. We are examining the sharing of neural substrates when subjects sing and speak. This work will be used the examine the neural correlates of innovative therapies in aphasia rehabilitation.