2010/03/18

Singing ’rewires’ damaged brain 唱歌讓受傷大腦「重新通電」

◎國際新聞中心

Teaching stroke patients to sing "rewires" their brains, helping them recover their speech, say scientists. By singing, patients use a different area of the brain from the area involved in speech. If a person’s "speech centre" is damaged by a stroke, they can learn to use their "singing centre" instead.

科 學家說,教中風病患唱歌來讓他們的大腦「重新通電」,有助讓他們恢復說話。病患藉著唱歌,使用大腦中與語言相關區域不同的區塊,若一個人的「語言中樞」因 為中風受損,他們可以學著使用「唱歌中樞」來替代。

An ongoing clinical trial, they said, has shown how the brain responds to this "melodic intonation therapy". The therapy is already established as a medical technique.

他們說,一份 正在進行的臨床試驗顯示大腦如何回應這種「旋律聲調治療法」。這種療法已被確立為醫療技術。

Most of the connections between brain areas that control movement and those that control hearing are on the left side of the brain. But there’s a sort of corresponding hole on the right side. For some reason, it’s not as endowed with these connections, so the left side is used much more in speech. But as patients learn to put their words to melodies, the crucial connections form on the right side of their brains.

大腦控制行 動的區塊與控制聽覺的區塊,之間的聯繫多數發生在左腦,但右腦有某種回應的漏洞,因為一些原因,天生沒有這種連結,所以說話時,左腦使用的比較多,但當病 患學習將字詞放入旋律時,這種重要的連結就會在右腦形成。

During the therapy sessions, patients are taught to put their words to simple melodies. After a single session, a stroke patients who was are not able to form any intelligible words learned to say the phrase "I am thirsty" by combining each syllable with the note of a melody.

治療時,病患被指導把要說的話放進簡單的旋律中,經過一個階 段,一名沒辦法說出清晰字詞的中風病患,藉著將每個音節與一段旋律的音符連結,學會說了「我口渴」這個短句。

新聞辭典

ongoing:形容詞,正在進行的。例句:No agreement has yet been reached and the negotiations are still ongoing.(目前談判尚未達成協議,仍在進行當中。)

be endowed with:片語,與生俱有……。例句:Some lucky people are endowed with both brains and beauty.(一些幸運的人智慧與美貌兼具。)

intelligible: 形容詞,(說話或寫字)清晰的。例句:She was so upset when she spoke that she was hardly intelligible.(她難過到說話都說不太清楚。)

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