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| Steven H. Cornelius Music and Stroke |
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young was born with a wide variety of neurological weaknesses. In her book, The Woman Who Changed Her Brain (2012), she details her recovery from those afflictions. Once she overcame her own problems, Arrowsmith-Young devoted her professional life to helping others overcome theirs.
For her own recovery, the first step was to focus on specific cognitive deficits and identify areas of the brain associated with those activities. Step two was to devise exercises that would stimulate the proper areas. Step three was to perform, with both mental focus and bulldog tenacity, the exercises over and over again. With time, her efforts paid off.
This method also works for equally determined others.
Focused task-oriented thinking/doing builds neurological connections in the brain by encouraging the growth of dendrites (root-like stimulus receivers), which reach out from, and gather information for, the brain’s neurons. Well stimulated dendrites grow more branches, thereby increasing a neuron’s capacity to receive information from other neurons. A brain full of well connected neurons is an efficient one. Good thinkers have brain areas mapped with dense webs of dendrite-linked neural highways.
A mindful, creative, and daily music practice routine also builds efficient dendritic webs. All musical practice is not the same, of course. Different routines have different effects and serve different needs.
When I was relearning how to walk after my stroke, I soon discovered that I would collapse if I tried to speak. The effort of speaking seemed to disrupt the shaky signals my compromised brain was sending to my motor system. Once I was relatively stable on my feet, I began working on speaking short phrases while staying aright. I initially rhythmically synched words to my steps, but was soon able to separate the two. I also sang rhythmic patterns along with which I moved through musical time, as if dancing. Here my goal was to regain a modicum of physical grace by balancing out the pacing and length of individual steps.
To help my speech, I read aloud while playing drum patterns. At first, the exercise was almost impossible. If I practiced for 30 minutes, I needed to sleep for a couple hours. With time, however, I learned to keep both tasks alive in my mind without exhausting myself. Indeed, such practice is now quite invigorating.
I continue to practice reading aloud, sometimes while drumming, other times while doing tai chi movements, and yet other times simply sitting still. Drumming while speaking increases my ability to multitask. The super-slow movements of tai chi help me to eliminate movement glitches. Sitting still allows me to monitor and thereby reduce referred tension to my extremities caused by enunciating words I find difficult to pronounce.
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