How singing in a choir might help people find their voices after a stroke

After Serge Belloncik suffered a stroke in 2022, he developed aphasia, a communication disorder affecting his ability to speak. 

It was a life-changing adjustment for the 81-year-old scientist and former professor, long accustomed to giving conferences and delivering lectures.

Since then, his communication has improved, but he still has trouble.

“Sometimes I must find my words,” he says. “Sometimes I speak, and sometimes I stop.”

Now, Belloncik is taking part in a study to determine if singing in a choir can help people with aphasia in their recovery. Every week, he gets together with a small group of others with aphasia at a Montreal community centre. 

On a recent fall morning, after doing vocal tests and putting on a heart-rate monitor for researchers to track, Belloncik sat with three others behind a music stand and began to sing.

Accompanied by their vocal director on piano, they began a gentle rendition of the well-known Quebec song, Gens du pays.

Belloncik says being part of the study has been a positive experience so far. 

“I like it because it gives me occasion to speak, and to find my old voice.”

The randomized controlled trial is led by Anna Zumbansen, a professor with the school of rehabilitation sciences at the University of Ottawa, and is part of the SingWell initiative, an international network of researchers studying group singing. It involves 12 weekly choir sessions at four different sites, with participants who have developed aphasia from strokes. 

There are sites in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Tampa Bay, Fla. 

“We are hoping this study will demonstrate that choir activity is really good for people,” said Édith Durand, an assistant speech-language pathology professor at the Université de Québec à Trois-Rivières and one of the study’s researchers. 

“Good for their language, but good for their social relations, too,” Durand said, explaining that aphasia can lead to a drop in social participation.

Previous studies have suggested singing can help people with aphasia improve their capacity to express themselves, said Dr. Alexander Thiel, a stroke neurologist at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, who is not involved in the study.