Science is Cool!

Last month, dozens of news outlets reported the story of Charlotte Neve, the seven-year-old girl from Lancashire who awoke from a coma after hearing one of her favourite songs. "It's a complete miracle," the girl's mother, Leila, told The Sun. "I thought I was going to lose my little girl. I climbed into her hospital bed to give her a cuddle … and Adele came on the radio. I started singing it to her because she loves her and we used to sing that song together. Charlotte started smiling and I couldn't believe it."

 

There are other, similar cases. Earlier this year, Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb fell into a coma after contracting pneumonia, and reportedly emerged from it 12 days later after family members began playing familiar music and singing to him. Such cases provide anecdotal evidence that familiar music has beneficial effects on comatose patients. Now, French researchers have conducted the first scientific study of this phenomenon, and their preliminary findings suggest that familiar music probably can increase arousal in coma patients, and may also enhance their cognitive processes....

Via Dr. Stefan Gruenwald, Sakis Koukouvis