A daily dose of one’s favorite music can speed recovery from a stroke, according to a study published Wednesday.

Music therapy has long been used in a range of treatments, including autism, schizophrenia, and dementia, but the new study is the first to show the effect in people.

“These findings demonstrate for the first time that music listening during the early post-stroke stage can enhance cognitive recovery and prevent negative mood,” the researchers wrote.

Researchers at the University of Helsinki experimented music therapy on a group of 60 patients aged 75 or younger, who were currently in the recovery phase from either a left or right hemisphere cerebral artery stroke.

Strokes, which occur when blood flow to the brain is blocked, can kill brain tissue and are one of the worldwide leading causes of death and permanent disability. Treatments include blood thinning drugs and attempts to lower cholesterol.

The participants in the study were divided into three groups depending on how they spent the first week after their stroke, identified as the ideal recovery period. They were listening to music, listening to audio books, or doing nothing.

The patients were checked and tested after three months, and then after six months.

Three months after a stroke, the researchers discovered that verbal memory was boosted by 60 percent in music listeners, by 18 percent in audio book listeners, and by 29 percent in non-listeners, Teppo Sarkamo, a neuroscientist at Helsinki University and lead author of the study said.

“Everyday music listening during early stroke recovery offers a valuable addition to the patients' care, especially if other active forms of rehabilitation are not yet feasible," Sarkamo told AFP.

The ability to focus attention (the ability to control and perform mental operations and resolve conflicts) also improved by 17 percent in music listeners, said Sarkamo. The findings also show that those who listened to music were less depressed and confused.

The same results were observed six months after the stroke.

“We can’t say what is happening in the brain but based on previous research and theory it may be music listening could actually activate the brain areas that are recovering,” Sarkamo noted.

However, larger studies are needed to exactly understand what is going on. If validated, the study points to an easy and cost-effective therapy for recovering stroke patients.

“Stroke patients typically spend about three-quarters of their time each day in non-therapeutic activities, mostly in their rooms, inactive and without interaction,” Sarkamo said.

Dr. Isabel Lee, research liaison officer at the Stroke Association, welcomed the results of the study, but she added that “further research into the effect of music on stroke patients need to be undertaken before any widespread use, as presently the mechanism of any effect remains unclear,” BBC quoted her.

The findings were published in the Oxford University Press journal Brain.