Dilbert's Scott Adams cures self through prayer!

[Angus McPresley]

Wait, not prayer, he cured himself through the pragmatic consideration of the best available knowledge science had to offer about his condition. Read the fascinating tale here:

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/10/good_news_day.html

Please, people, get the lesson here. Even if you choose to appeal to the supernatural for a cure, don't forget to do everything you can in the real world to fix yourself. As they say, call on God, but row away from the rocks.

[CFLarsen]

The weirdest part of this phenomenon is that speech is processed in different parts of the brain depending on the context. So people with this problem can often sing but they can’t talk. In my case I could do my normal professional speaking to large crowds but I could barely whisper and grunt off stage. And most people with this condition report they have the most trouble talking on the telephone or when there is background noise. I can speak normally alone, but not around others. That makes it sound like a social anxiety problem, but it’s really just a different context, because I could easily sing to those same people.

OK, that's weird!

[Stitch]

Please, people, get the lesson here. Even if you choose to appeal to the supernatural for a cure, don't forget to do everything you can in the real world to fix yourself. As they say, call on God, but row away from the rocks.

As the floods started to rise a devout man of god stayed in his house as others started to leave. A good samaritan knocked at the door an offered to take him with him, the man declined saying "The lord will provide". The waters continuted to rise and as the man moved to the upper floor of his house the fire brigade came by and offered to rescure him the man declined saying "The lord will provide". After some hours the man moved on to the roof as the waters raised yet further and a helicopter came alond and offered to take him away, the man declined saying "The lord will provide". An hour or so later the man drowned and found himself before god. He asked god "why did you forsake me? Did I not devote my life to you? I thought you would provide for me!" God replied "who do you think sent the samaritan, the fire brigade and the helicopter?" :D

[casebro]

So what? A psychosomatic cure for a psychosomatic illness. Seems it went away when the guy REALLY wanted it to go. I always knew the guy was mental, he thinks too much like I do...

[Mercutio]

So what? A psychosomatic cure for a psychosomatic illness. Seems it went away when the guy REALLY wanted it to go. I always knew the guy was mental, he thinks too much like I do...
Psychosomatic? Did you actually read the post? Spasmodic Dysphonia is a neurological disorder, not a psychosomatic one. Radio talk-show host Diane Rehm (http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/diane_rehm/) also suffers from this condition, and gets botox injections in her larynx on a regular basis.

[Mercutio]

OK, that's weird!
Just highlights, once again, the difference between our commonsense ideas about how we think and act, and the actual workings of our bodies. You think it is weird because for most of us, speech is speech. Why should there be more than one mechanism? But of course, there are many people who stutter when speaking, but can sing wonderfully (e.g., Mel Tillis). And of course, it makes sense that different brain pathways are involved. It just is not the way it feels to us.

[Mojo]

The weirdest part of this phenomenon is that speech is processed in different parts of the brain depending on the context. So people with this problem can often sing but they can’t talk. In my case I could do my normal professional speaking to large crowds but I could barely whisper and grunt off stage. And most people with this condition report they have the most trouble talking on the telephone or when there is background noise. I can speak normally alone, but not around others. That makes it sound like a social anxiety problem, but it’s really just a different context, because I could easily sing to those same people.OK, that's weird!I've read that singing and speaking use different parts of the brain (Google threw up plenty of hits for this, but I'm not sure how reliable any of them are...). As a personal example, I can sing while playing the guitar (and never really had any trouble combining the two), but I find it very difficult to talk while playing.

[drkitten]

I've read that singing and speaking use different parts of the brain.

Yup. Some of the best evidence for this is from aphasic patients; someone will have (for example), a stroke that destroys left-hemisphere tissue in the language centers, and lose the ability to speak, but will be able to sing and/or recite poetry perfectly.

If you want some reputable studies, try this one (http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/126/8/1838), this one (http://jnnp.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/221), and this one (http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/282/3/218).

Share and enjoy.

[ImaginalDisc]

Psychosomatic? Did you actually read the post? Spasmodic Dysphonia is a neurological disorder, not a psychosomatic one. Radio talk-show host Diane Rehm (http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/diane_rehm/) also suffers from this condition, and gets botox injections in her larynx on a regular basis.

Oh! Here I thought that she was dealing with Parkinson's.

[joobz]

Just highlights, once again, the difference between our commonsense ideas about how we think and act, and the actual workings of our bodies. You think it is weird because for most of us, speech is speech. Why should there be more than one mechanism? But of course, there are many people who stutter when speaking, but can sing wonderfully (e.g., Mel Tillis). And of course, it makes sense that different brain pathways are involved. It just is not the way it feels to us.
Does this inability to know that we are using different brain centers tie into our inability to know how we really sound to others without being recorded and played back?

[CFLarsen]

Just highlights, once again, the difference between our commonsense ideas about how we think and act, and the actual workings of our bodies. You think it is weird because for most of us, speech is speech. Why should there be more than one mechanism? But of course, there are many people who stutter when speaking, but can sing wonderfully (e.g., Mel Tillis). And of course, it makes sense that different brain pathways are involved. It just is not the way it feels to us.

But you said it.

(OK, you wrote it.....)

[Mercutio]

But you said it.

(OK, you wrote it.....)

Would it be easier if I said...er, wrote it in iambic pentameter?

[JLam]

That is one of the coolest stories I've ever read. Wow. :)

[robinson]

I love Scott Adams too. But as a sceptic, I wondered about the statements-
..I asked my doctor – a specialist for this condition – how many people have ever gotten better. Answer: zero. While there’s no cure,...
Just because no one has ever gotten better from Spasmodic Dysphonia before doesn’t mean I can’t be the first...
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/10/good_news_day.html

I didn't doubt he was reporting the truth about getting his voice back. But I do wonder if he knows how to search the interntet.

5 seconds on Google and I found a history of cures dating back 30 years. Short snip for those who don't want to follow the link-
At the 1998 Pacific Voice Conference I presented cures of SD by Direct Voice Rehabilitation (DVR). I presented cures of people who had been diagnosed with the most severe SD by the UCLA Medical Center’s Head and Neck Division, considered as one of the foremost hospitals and medical centers in the world. The SD diagnoses were made by some of the Medical Center’s Head and Neck Division’s top physicians, including Dr. Paul Ward, ENT, who was the chairman of the Medical Center’s Head and Neck Division preceding the present chairman, Dr. Gerald Berke. For instance, Berke diagnosed Gayle Pace as having Adductor/Abductor SD. She was cured under my care by DVR. Pace remains cured of SD twelve years after my program of DVR. Ward diagnosed Marjorie Whitman with SD so severe, Dr. Ward recommended surgery. Whitman declined. She recovered a normal voice by DVR. Rev. Henry Sellers reports that Dr. Berke had diagnosed him as having a focal laryngeal dystonia (SD). Rev. Sellers was also cured and remains cured by DVR. Dr. Berke diagnosed SD for Mr. Robin. Botox was advised. Mr. Robin opted for DVR and is cured of SD.

The litany of cures by DVR is extensive. It includes Rev. James Johnson, diagnosed by the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Arnold Aronson as having very severe SD. Rev. Johnson was told to have surgery. He declined, tried an intensive one-month program of DVR, and still remains cured of SD over 17 years later.
http://www.voice-doctor.com/pacconfreport.htm

I have a small interest in this matter, because of suffering the same problem due to medication side effects many years ago. A little research on the Doctor above shows the Medical community is sort of ignoring him.

[CFLarsen]

Would it be easier if I said...er, wrote it in iambic pentameter?

NO!!

[Jimbo07]

Does this inability to know that we are using different brain centers tie into our inability to know how we really sound to others without being recorded and played back?

Doesn't that have more to do with the acoustics inside our own skulls?

[Yahzi]

Dr. Oliver Sacks, in one of his books, talks about how his broken leg went nuerologically off-line and he could not walk, until he was pushed into a pool and started swimming. Then his brain could find his leg again, and he was fine.

[luchog]

Would it be easier if I said...er, wrote it in iambic pentameter?

Trochaic heptameter would be more interesting.

[Hawk one]

How about a limerick?

The master of Dilbert can walk
and certainly look at a hawk
But only right now
he regained the way how
to actually, blessedly, talk

[politas]

I love Scott Adams too. But as a sceptic, I wondered about the statements-

I didn't doubt he was reporting the truth about getting his voice back. But I do wonder if he knows how to search the interntet.

5 seconds on Google and I found a history of cures dating back 30 years. Short snip for those who don't want to follow the link-

I have a small interest in this matter, because of suffering the same problem due to medication side effects many years ago. A little research on the Doctor above shows the Medical community is sort of ignoring him.

Scott Adams never claims to know everything. In fact, he frequently proclaims his ignorance on many topics, but doesn't feel that should stop him making an interesting story or joke out of something.

[Kaarjuus]

Yup. Some of the best evidence for this is from aphasic patients; someone will have (for example), a stroke that destroys left-hemisphere tissue in the language centers, and lose the ability to speak, but will be able to sing and/or recite poetry perfectly.

If you want some reputable studies, try this one (http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/126/8/1838), this one (http://jnnp.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/40/3/221), and this one (http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/282/3/218).


The first study concludes:


Therefore, our findings do not support the claim that singing helps word production in non-fluent aphasic patients. Rather, they are consistent with the idea that verbal production, be it sung or spoken, result from the operation of same mechanisms


The second study does not open. The third study concludes:


Lyrics of familiar songs, as well as words of proverbs and prayers, were not better pronounced in singing than in speaking. Notes were better produced than words. In Experiment 2, the aphasic patients repeated and recalled lyrics from novel songs. Again, they did not produce more words in singing than in speaking. In Experiment 3, when allowed to sing or speak along with an auditory model while learning novel songs, aphasics repeated and recalled more words when singing than when speaking. Reduced speed or shadowing cannot account for this advantage of singing along over speaking in unison. The results suggest that singing in synchrony with an auditory model—choral singing—is more effective than choral speech, at least in French, in improving word intelligibility because choral singing may entrain more than one auditory–vocal interface.


So I really see no evidence here for the claim that singing and speaking use different parts of the brain to a significant degree. Certainly, when you sing, you use somewhat different parts, as you have to utter the proper notes in a proper melody, but the speech itself seems to be handled by the same areas.

As a person who stutters I am well aware that singing significantly reduces stuttering. But stuttering is reduced by lots of things: delayed auditory feedback, frequency altered feedback, speaking in chorus with others, speaking with an accent, speaking with a throaty voice, speaking with a loud voice, speaking in a whisper, etc etc etc.

So there is no reason to conclude that because people do not stutter during singing, they are using different parts of the brain which function properly.

[robinson]

Scott Adams never claims to know everything. In fact, he frequently proclaims his ignorance on many topics, but doesn't feel that should stop him making an interesting story or joke out of something.

I feel the same way.

[kmortis]

Dr. Oliver Sacks, in one of his books, talks about how his broken leg went nuerologically off-line and he could not walk, until he was pushed into a pool and started swimming. Then his brain could find his leg again, and he was fine.

Dr. Ramachandran talks about how he was able to make phantom limbs disappear by using a mirror box. It seems that the brian needed to "remap" by seeing both arms move.

Interesting story, really.