2023-08-19 06:33:45
Singing can stimulate the brain of her premature baby, help her own neurons following an accident or in the face of aging, or rehabilitate diseased lungs.
In It’s my healthGéraldine Zamansky, journalist at Health magazine on France 5 and on Saturday on franceinfo, looks back on the discoveries that are multiplying around the powers of singing in the face of certain illnesses or situations of weakening.
franceinfo: What work has been done in this area?
Géraldine Zamansky : One of the recent discoveries concerns infants born prematurely. If their parents sing while they are in skin-to-skin contact, the brains of these tiny babies become much more active. Especially in areas related to understanding language. This might be measured with electrodes placed on the skull by Finnish researchers in Helsinki. They conclude that singing has a specific stimulation power for hearing and certain neurological skills at the very beginning of life.
With also a benefit for the parents?
Yes, because their anxiety was then reduced. And it is for those who sing that science discovers the most benefits. Studies have thus shown the origin of the appeasement of parents: singing leads to a reduction in stress hormones. This is not going to surprise anyone who feels almost euphoric following singing their favorite songs in the car or in the shower. An effect increased tenfold within a choir for example. It is even associated with a more surprising stimulation of certain immune defences.
Could singing therefore become a treatment?
That’s kind of the idea. The same team from Helsinki has shown that the fact of participating in a choir, precisely, slows down neurological aging. Because this activity is very demanding for the brain which must simultaneously mobilize the circuits of memory, hearing, production of song at the right rhythm and in the right key. This would make neurons and their connections more resistant to years. In addition, these researchers have demonstrated by MRIs that this was really the case for the area of the brain dedicated to singing: it remains in better shape than its neighbors.
Can this work be considered for specific pathologies?
The special powers of singing are increasingly being tested, with very good results, for patients with Parkinson’s disease, whose language is often affected. Or in case of aphasia, that is to say a loss of the use of words, generally due to a stroke. Finally, you have to have breath to sing. The opportunity for much more joyful rehabilitation than the exercises usually offered to people with respiratory problems. In the UK, there is even a network of “lung health” choirs.
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