In the 1980s and 1990s, Ron Spitzer played bass and drums in rock bands such as Tot Rocket and the Twins, Western Eyes, and Band of Susans. He sang, wrote songs, toured the country, and recorded albums. After the bands broke up, he continued making music with friends.
But after a stroke in 2009 left Spitzer partially paralyzed in his left arm and leg and confined to a wheelchair, he donated his drum kit, his bass guitar was left untouched and his voice was reduced to a whisper.
Music is now part of his treatment: Every week, Spitzer sings with a choir for people recovering from strokes at the Louis Armstrong Music and Medicine Center at Mount Sinai in New York.
“I literally found my voice,” Spitzer said.
Associated Press correspondent Ed Donahue reports on the power of song to heal stroke patients.
Scientists are investigating the potential benefits of music for patients with dementia, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. Music activates multiple areas of the brain and strengthens neural connections between areas responsible for language, memory, emotion and movement.
Music also appears to increase levels of certain proteins in the brain that are important for making new connections between neurons, says Priti Raghavan, PhD, a stroke rehabilitation expert at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a volunteer with the American Stroke Association.
“It increases the likelihood of the brain being rewired,” Raghavan says.
Groups like the Mount Sinai Choir offer hope of healing through music while also providing a sense of camaraderie where stroke survivors don’t have to explain their limitations.
“We’re all part of the same tribe,” Spitzer said.
Strokes often damage cells in the brain’s left hemisphere language center, causing survivors to have difficulty remembering words, a condition known as ‘language recall’. AphasiaBut the ability to sing fluently may remain, says Jessica Hariwijaya, a Mount Sinai researcher who studies stroke choirs.
Singing can help stroke patients improve their speech. The National Aphasia Association says: Music and Arts ProgramsThere are also programs for people with the disease, such as a choir that meets online.
Spitzer’s stroke damaged the right side of his brain, an area that some scientists say is important for processing musical tonal patterns. He lost the ability to sing familiar songs. One time, he heard a Beatles song on the radio, tried to sing along, but the song was gone from his head. He called it an “out-of-body experience.”
“I was like, ‘This isn’t me,'” he says.
Rigorous research It is still in the early stages; National Institutes of Health Supporting research into how music works in the brain and how it can be used to treat a variety of conditions.
Raghavan said that level of research will be important if music therapy is to be more widely covered by health insurers.
In the Mount Sinai study, researchers will compare 20 patients randomly assigned to choral therapy with 20 patients receiving standard care to measure how choir participation affects speech and mood. The study will also measure the impact of choir participation on the caregivers of patients.
Spitzer, now 68, has completed other rehabilitation programs and regained his physical abilities — he walks with a cane, can yell like a New Yorker and his singing voice has returned.
“I credit my recovery to the Stroke Choir,” he says. “For me, just being able to sing again was such a relief.”
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
