Dilbert's Scott Adams cures self through prayer!

[Kaarjuus]

Yup. Some of the best evidence for this is from aphasic patients; someone will have (for example), a stroke that destroys left-hemisphere tissue in the language centers, and lose the ability to speak, but will be able to sing and/or recite poetry perfectly.

If you want some reputable studies, try this one, this one, and this one.

The first study concludes:

Therefore, our findings do not support the claim that singing helps word production in non-fluent aphasic patients. Rather, they are consistent with the idea that verbal production, be it sung or spoken, result from the operation of same mechanisms

The second study does not open. The third study concludes:

Lyrics of familiar songs, as well as words of proverbs and prayers, were not better pronounced in singing than in speaking. Notes were better produced than words. In Experiment 2, the aphasic patients repeated and recalled lyrics from novel songs. Again, they did not produce more words in singing than in speaking. In Experiment 3, when allowed to sing or speak along with an auditory model while learning novel songs, aphasics repeated and recalled more words when singing than when speaking. Reduced speed or shadowing cannot account for this advantage of singing along over speaking in unison. The results suggest that singing in synchrony with an auditory model—choral singing—is more effective than choral speech, at least in French, in improving word intelligibility because choral singing may entrain more than one auditory–vocal interface.

So I really see no evidence here for the claim that singing and speaking use different parts of the brain to a significant degree. Certainly, when you sing, you use somewhat different parts, as you have to utter the proper notes in a proper melody, but the speech itself seems to be handled by the same areas.

As a person who stutters I am well aware that singing significantly reduces stuttering. But stuttering is reduced by lots of things: delayed auditory feedback, frequency altered feedback, speaking in chorus with others, speaking with an accent, speaking with a throaty voice, speaking with a loud voice, speaking in a whisper, etc etc etc.

So there is no reason to conclude that because people do not stutter during singing, they are using different parts of the brain which function properly.

 

[robinson]

Scott Adams never claims to know everything. In fact, he frequently proclaims his ignorance on many topics, but doesn't feel that should stop him making an interesting story or joke out of something.

I feel the same way.

 

[kmortis]

Dr. Oliver Sacks, in one of his books, talks about how his broken leg went nuerologically off-line and he could not walk, until he was pushed into a pool and started swimming. Then his brain could find his leg again, and he was fine.

Dr. Ramachandran talks about how he was able to make phantom limbs disappear by using a mirror box. It seems that the brian needed to "remap" by seeing both arms move.

Interesting story, really.