Difficulties with temporal coordination or sequencing of speech movements are frequently reported in aphasia patients with concomitant apraxia of speech (AOS). Our major objective was to investigate the effects of specific rhythmic-melodic voice training on brain activation of those patients. Three patients with severe chronic nonfluent aphasia and AOS were included in this study. Before and after therapy, patients underwent the same fMRI procedure as 30 healthy control subjects in our prestudy, which investigated the neural substrates of sung vowel changes in untrained rhythm sequences. A main finding was that post-minus pretreatment imaging data yielded significant perilesional activations in all patients for example, in the left superior temporal gyrus, whereas the reverse subtraction revealed either no significant activation or right hemisphere activation. Likewise, pre- and posttreatment assessments of patients' vocal rhythm production, language, and speech motor performance yielded significant improvements for all patients. Our results suggest that changes in brain activation due to the applied training might indicate specific processes of reorganization, for example, improved temporal sequencing of sublexical speech components. In this context, a training that focuses on rhythmic singing with differently demanding complexity levels as concerns motor and cognitive capabilities seems to support paving the way for speech.

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This article provides a summary of the oral papers presented during a two day international conference, which took place on 7th & 8th June 2013, at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability (RHN) in London. The summary texts detail innovative research projects and clinical developments across music therapy, music neuroscience and music psychology addressing the needs of those with acquired and degenerative neurological conditions. The diverse and evolving work in this field is reflected in the topics covered, including disorders of consciousness, dementia, stroke, and the use of modern neuro-imaging methods to measure the effects of music therapy at a cortical level. A discussion of the implications of these converging foci highlights the benefits of the cross-disciplinary dialogue that characterised the conference.