Ali Mesiwala, MD, directs neurosurgery at St. Bernardine Medical Center and works as a neurosurgeon for the Chaparral Medical Group. With a background as an educator, Ali Mesiwala, MD, stays informed on the latest developments in the science of the brain.
A recent study at the University of California, San Francisco, brought focus to the brain’s neural codes and the ability to imbue words with meaning through pitch. Working with patients who had uncontrolled epileptic seizures, surgeons placed electrodes in the patients’ brains to assist in guiding the scalpel through the surgery.
This allowed the neural activity of the patients' sensorimotor cortex to be monitored while hundreds of distinct sentences were spoken aloud. Researchers found that the neurons gather in clusters when they are coordinating approximately 100 separate muscle movements of the lips, jaw, tongue, and larynx.
One issue this research may inform is aprosodia, a neurological condition that involves disruption of comprehension and expression of vocal changes used to signal emotional intent in language. Patients with this condition do not understand and are unable to express the subtle changes of rate, pitch, loudness, and rhythm we use to communicate.
