Music therapy restores vision in stroke patients

Up to 60% of stroke patients develop impaired visual awareness - a condition known as "visual neglect".

They lose the ability to track objects in their visual field on the side opposite to where their brain has been damaged by the stroke.

The study, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that music can help ease the problem.

The latest study looked at three patients who had lost awareness of half of their field of vision. They completed tasks under three conditions: while listening to music they liked, music they did not like, and in silence.

All three patients could identify coloured shapes and red lights in their depleted side of vision much more accurately while they were listening to music of their choice.

One patient could point out light in 65% of cases when listening to his favourite music, but in only 15% of cases when listening to unpleasant music, or silence. The researchers believe pleasant music generates positive emotions, which may help produce more efficient signalling in the brain, increasing its capacity to process stimuli.

Brain scans confirmed that listening to pleasant music activated areas linked to positive emotional responses, and that activity was coupled with the improvement in patients' performance on the tasks.