Comments on: How Kenny Rogers and Frank Sinatra could help stroke patients

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:11:23 +0000

Lab Rat – It’s almost certainly a more general brain thing. The paper itself has loads of references to positive effects of good moods (and music in particular on various parts of the brain).
Luna – I’m sorry to hear about your dad, but thank you for sharing your experience.

By: Lab Rat

Lab Rat — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:35:58 +0000

wow, that is really interesting. I wonder whether it might be a more general ‘brain’ thing or whether it is specific to neglect, lots of people I know find it easier to revise or concentrate on work when their listening to music they enjoy (I know that’s the worst type of science-by-anecdote but still…)

By: Luna_the_cat

Luna_the_cat — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:13:33 +0000

…This makes me sad; I so wish I had known to try this with my dad.
He had a couple of strokes, badly damaging several areas of the right hemisphere and leaving him with left-side spatial neglect. Yes, his vision was perfectly fine, but he kept running into walls and furniture when he regained the ability to walk because he simply didn’t *notice* anything there.
Anything that could have improved his quality of life, or helped speed up his recovery, would have been so good.

By: Grep Agni

Grep Agni — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:00:38 +0000

I have no special authority on the subject, but it seems to me that whether “vision” is affected in neglect patients depends on what exactly what we mean by the term.
I think everyone has had the experience of looking for something right in front them and not seeing it. Suppose there is a therapy that makes it easier to find objects in your visual field, so you don’t spend so much time trying to find you keys. Saying the therapy “improves vision” seems perfectly reasonable.
This is especially true in robotics/artificial vision research. Someone who says that a new robot has improved vision almost certainly means that it has better analysis of incoming data rather than a higher resolution camera.

By: Neu

Neu — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:33:47 +0000

You are entirely right: The headlines you quote are typical examples of how journalists get the most basic things wrong. By definition, neglect means that the fundamental sensory processing is not impaired. These people can see perfectly well.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:36:16 +0000

They couldn’t find anyone who liked the Ramones?! Clearly a flawed study.

By: Lilian Nattel

Lilian Nattel — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:21:43 +0000

No Sinatra for me! I would choose Kashtin or Claude McKenzie for my happy music. But what would be the effect of sad songs someone loves?