Fans of the country singer have long known the Kenny Rogers Effect.
It’s long been said that music has healing powers, but country music’s Kenny Rogers may be just what the doctor ordered for some stroke victims, according to the findings of a recent study.
Said study was published March 23, 2009, and suggests that music was indeed the best medicine for the study’s participating stroke victims whose cognitive impairments lessened while listening to songs they loved.
According to one of the study’s co-authors, David Soto, the music stimulated neurological pleasure centers that were adjacent to damaged brain regions, which, from all indications, produced a therapeutic crossover effect.
"There seems to be a strong coupling in the brain between emotional and attentional areas," said Soto, an Imperial College London-based neuroscientist, in a March 23 story in Wired Science. "When emotional areas light up and are activated, the attentional system seems to be more effective as well."
Per the report in Wired Science, those who took part in the study had suffered lesions to their brains' parietal cortex, a region central to visual and spatial processing. As a result, they suffered a condition that’s known as visual neglect, wherein victims lose half their spatial awareness. Consequently, some who endure this condition may sometimes eat food from only one side of their plate, shave one side of their faces or, as observed in the study, neglect to perceive visual prompts on one side of a computer screen.
Because songs by country performer Rogers were among the stroke patients’ preferred tunes, "We were thinking of calling this the Kenny Rogers Effect," Soto said in a recent interview. And interestingly, Rogers’ songs also provided the greatest benefits, according to study findings.
Researchers report that the music used in the study was selected without regard for the stroke victims’ personal musical preferences, yet it managed to create a beneficial state of heightened mental arousal. Thus, when patients' ears, so did their brains, according to the study results. However, concede the scientists, it is also conceivable that said patients also happened to like the music, which would suggest that the benefits were linked to the pleasure derived from patients’ favorite songs.
"Our ability to select information and perceive information and be aware of what's going on in the world depends on how we feel," Soto has observed.
Hmmm, this writer wonders if Kenny's duets with the late, great Dottie West or Dolly Parton were part of the study? Or, did the researchers include only Rogers' solo material? Seems a little "Islands in the Stream" with Parton or "You Needed Me" with West would be doubling soothing, no? Then again, maybe "The Gambler" is just pure magic all on its own.
For more info: For more information on the study, Music listening enhances cognitive recovery and mood after middle cerebral artery stroke, please click here. Or, to view Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" video, simply scroll down.
"The Gambler" was a huge hit for Kenny Rogers in 1978.
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