I am equally interested in the outcomes of your great inquiry. I am waiting to see the aftermath of this creative initiative. All the best dear Olivia.

this field of research - effects of music on defined kinds of aphasia - is interesting in general and complex as well. It is common sense that to get reasonable results it depends on the first step to define the dependent and independent variables in a two-factors-design: Which kind of aphasia - which kind of music? You should tell something more about such preliminary assumption to discuss more precisely.

additional: a third factor with more than one variable should be the behavior of expression (internal speech, movements, dancing etc.) with or after hearing music. I for myself would say, I am (or my inner voice is) inclined to stutter if i hear ear-splitting heavy metal music.

I am curious to see if internal speech is prevalent despite the form of aphasia. I am unaware of where internal speech comes from- Broca's area possibly? If internal speech does stem from Broca's area, in a case of Broca's aphasia wouldn't internal speech be impacted and thus making a mental music framework more difficult than if internal speech was present? I hope this better reflects my initial question.

I do not have an independent/dependent variables in mind because I have not considered that aspect of my question until now. I appreciate the thought-provoking feedback. Effects of music on defined kinds of aphasia is incredibly interesting to me. If I had to be specific towards what music and what kind of aphasia, I would first want to see the difference between which kind of aspasia is able to produce internal speech and which isn't. Similar to a study on MT and Parkinson's Disease- internal music assist with external functions. Familiar music, such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star are familiar, easy to remember. May be the type of music that should be analyzed isn't genre based, but rather, ear worm/familiarity based.

My thought process behind this question may be summarized into a mental flow chart I have created to best organize my thoughts...

Understanding the presence of internal speech (depending on the form of aphasia) and whether or not a person is able to produce internal speech.

↓

Utilizing ear worm like tunes through MT to trigger...

↓

Memory.. which leads to a sense of...

↓

Familiarity.. which may produce...

↓

Cues for speech production

This idea may be completely ridiculous, but my curiously cannot be contained towards this area of study. I cannot fathom how one with aphasia may sing but unable to talk. Hopefully others have answers as well!

Thank you, Mr. Nance for that answer! Would you say that Kanji and Kana are characteristically similar because they are all rooted in the Japanese language? Out of curiosity, since they are a derivative of the same language and both utilize phonemes, why would they be impacted differently is their production is similar? (I am extremely curious to hear your perspective!)

The fact is that Language is a complex process or a bundle of processes. If a lession on Broca's impairs some linguistic hability it could leave several other habilities untouched. This could lead you to some interesting questions linked to your first question.

There is however to my knowledge no way to make online observations of the "inner language" process. Nevertheless, some experimental paradigma will tell you how impaired is for example the syntax module or the lexical module.

The answer to this question will probably be built on neurological data and not only on behaviour experimentation. Maybe you will want to know how language is processed because what you see in only the phonetic or kinesic outcome of a background processing. You might want to read some chapters on the anatomy of language and brain lesions leading to impairment.

Try this as an intro, (do not forget to keep your anatomy atlas by your side while reading!!!)

Friederici, Angela. 1999. «The neurobiology of language processing». In Language Comprehension: a biological perspective. Berlin, Hedelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag.

I sed you the first pages of the book as an attachement

Though question but beautiful. Hope you keep asking yourself.

Rafael S.

In our institute of music therapy ( Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 France we take care of people who have aphasia. Music therapy is efficient with people who are non-fluent ( lesions in the Broca area). This persons have the capacity to sing so the reeducation takes this support but it must be associated with the psychomotor music with instruments. The NMT method is interesting (Dr Thaut) but I suppose that you are going to start a bibliographic work, the laboratory lnc.univ-amu.fr is working on this subject the link between music and language , Pr Peretz . Research to the french professor Dr Duffau neuro chirurgien. We can keep in touch good work very interesting.

Pl B

Keep your eye open for a Special Issue of Aphasiology currently in process on Music & Aphasia with Prof Peretz as Guest Editor.

Note too that, while Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT)and it's variants is a popular treatment for those with brook's (motor type) aphasia, and there have been many scientific papers published on it, there is yet no study that unequivocally demonstrates it's efficacy.

While inner speech is usually comparatively poor in aphasia if comparing inner speech to neurotypical adults, I have found (on my page, "Inner Speech" area) that many individuals with aphasia, particularly non-fluent types of aphasia, do indeed have inner speech intact. In some cases, inner speech is particularly preserved relative to overt speech.

In my opinion, there should be an internal impact for the processes of language production, perception and comprehension. All those processes are taken place with the functions of neuron cells. Aphasic problems are related to the malfunction or dysfunction of neuron cells. Therefore , what kind of aphasic problem is related to inner cognitive process of language .

I note that 2 month's back I responded to this question, and invented a new type of aphasia, 'Brook's (motor type) aphasia'! I've had luck finding any trace of Brook's aphasia in the research literature. I can't imagine what I was thinking...;)

Tatiana Akhutina has researched the inner speech, to the best of my knowledge. "Neurolinguistic Analysis of Dynamic Aphasia" - her book, published long ago in Russian.