Music May Help After A Stroke

Researchers in Britain recently have said that stroke patients may be able to restore their vision by listening to music they like.



Three patients, who lost awareness of half of their field of vision, were studied at the Imperial College London. The patients were able to identify shapes and lights in the side of vision that was depleted much more accurately when they listened to music they liked than when there was silence or music they did not enjoy.



Functional MRI scans showed that listening to pleasant music as patients performed the visual testing that areas of the brain linked to positive emotional stimuli was activated. The activation of those regions coupled with the improvement of the patients' awareness of the visual world.



Dr. David Soto, lead author, said in a statement, "Music appears to improve awareness because of its positive emotional effect on the patient, so similar beneficial effects may also be gained by making the patient happy in other ways."