Left-sided stroke victims are often left with a debilitating speech disorder. Yet many can sing entire pieces of text fluently.

Singing is thought to activate areas of the right hemisphere which can pinch hit for the stroke-damaged left side of the brain.

Recent research from the Max Planck Institute has found, however, that it's not the singing that matters. It's the rhythm. And if the lyrics are familiar the stroke sufferer finds it even easier to speak them. The research appears in the journal Brain.

Scientists had 17 stroke victims attempt to pronounce thousands of syllables which were sung and recited with either rhythmic or non-rhythmic accompaniment. The lyrics were either very familiar or unfamiliar.

Just speaking the words in a rhythmic fashion was just as effective as singing. Even more important, however, is familiarity of the text. Scientists speculate that speaking commonly known phrases or singing very familiar songs might tap into different, possibly uninjured, parts of the brain than spontaneous speech does.

These results might put the source of success for singing therapies into question. But further studies are needed before therapists decide to change their tune.

在这里输入译文 大多数大脑左半球中风患者都会留下语言障碍的后遗症，但是其中有很多人能够通顺的唱完一整首完整的文字。

这种现象以前被认为是刺激了大脑右半球，活跃的右半球又刺激了大脑左半球而引起的。

马克斯普朗克学院最近的发现证明，这个现象和唱歌没有关系。问题的关键在于节奏。如果对歌词很熟悉，那么这个中风患者读起来就更容易。这项研究刊登在《大脑》杂志上。

科学家让17个中风患者发出几千个音节，这些音节可以被唱出来，也可以带着伴奏或不带伴奏背出来；歌词是原来熟悉的，也可以是以前没见过的。

带着节奏读出来的单词像唱歌一样流畅。更重要的是对文章的熟悉程度。科学家推测读出认识的短语或唱出熟悉的歌曲也许和没受伤的那部分大脑功能相似，但绝对同于普通人自然地说话。

这些结果可能会使音乐疗法的一些成果来源受到质疑。但是在音乐疗法者改变他们的态度之前需要有更深入的研究来提供证明。