According to a new study presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at San Diego,

The 1970s-devised music-related ‘melodic intonation therapy,’ can play a significant role in boosting the communication ability of stroke victims who face difficulties in speaking or cannot speak at all.

Noting that ‘melodic intonation therapy’ was a result of clinical observations of some patients who had suffered strokes, lead researcher Gottfried Schlaug, a neurology professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, said that the therapy underlined the fact that while such patients were no longer able to talk, they could still sing.

Schlaug and colleagues found that the therapy produced notable results in 12 speech-impaired patients who had suffered a stroke to the left hemisphere of the brain.

As per Schlaug, these patients were essentially taught to ‘sing-song’ some functional words and phrases, which brought about a consequential improvement in their verbal abilities. Furthermore, the patients maintained the speech improvement for nearly one month after the end of the therapy.

Noting that for these patients “the underdeveloped systems on the right side of the brain that respond to music became enhanced and changed structures,” Schlaug added that the study highlights the fact that “music might be an alternative medium for engaging parts of the brain that are otherwise not engaged.”