After a stroke, this musician regained his singing voice with the help of a special choir

In the 1980s and 90s, Ron Spitzer played bass and drums in rock bands – Tot Rocket and the Twins, Western Eyes and Band of Susans. He sang and wrote songs, toured the country and recorded albums. When the bands broke up, he continued to make music with his friends.

But a stroke in 2009 left Spitzer in a wheelchair, partially paralyzing his left arm and leg. He gave his battery. Below it remained untouched. His voice was a whisper.

Now music is part of his healing. Spitzer sings every week in a choir for people recovering from stroke at the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

“I found my voice, literally,” Spitzer said.

Scientists are studying the potential benefits of music for people with dementia, traumatic brain injuries, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. Music illuminates multiple regions of the brain, strengthening neural connections between areas that govern language, memories, emotions and movement.

And music appears to increase levels of a specific protein in the brain that is important for making new connections between neurons, said Dr. Preeti Raghavan, a stroke rehabilitation specialist at Johns Hopkins Medicine and a volunteer with the American Stroke Association.

“This increases the possibility of the brain rewiring itself,” Raghavan said.

Choirs like the one at Mount Sinai offer the hope of healing through music while also providing camaraderie, a place where stroke survivors don’t have to explain their limitations.

“We’re all part of the same tribe,” Spitzer said.

Strokes often damage cells in the language center of the brain’s left hemisphere, leaving survivors with difficulty retrieving words, a condition called aphasia. However, the ability to sing fluently may remain, said Jessica Hariwijaya, a researcher at Mount Sinai who is studying the stroke choir.

Singing can help stroke survivors improve their speaking ability. The National Aphasia Society maintains a list of music and arts programsincluding choirs that meet online, for people with the disease.

Spitzer’s stroke damaged the right side of his brain, which some scientists identify as important for processing musical patterns. He lost the ability to sing familiar songs. Once, a Beatles song came on the radio and he tried to sing along, but the melody disappeared from his mind. He called it an “out-of-body experience.”

“It was like, ‘This isn’t me,’” he said

Rigorous research is in its beginnings, with the National Institutes of Health supporting studies into how music works in the brain and how it can be used to treat symptoms of various diseases.

This level of research will be important for music therapy to be more widely reimbursed by health insurers, Raghavan said.

The Mount Sinai study will evaluate how choir participation affects speech and mood, as researchers compare 20 patients randomly assigned to choir therapy with 20 patients receiving standard care. The study will also measure the effects on caregivers of patients who participate in the choir.

Now 68, Spitzer has completed other rehabilitation programs that have helped him regain physical abilities. He walks with a cane, screams like any New Yorker and has regained his singing voice.

“I attribute a lot of this recovery to the stroke coral,” he said. “For me, being able to sing a song again was very refreshing.”

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