Researchers from the Universities of Montana and Michigan in the United States have developed a therapeutic program based on bird watching to help stroke patients with aphasia recover.
According to their research published in the journal Frontiers in Bird Science, stroke survivors participate in a comprehensive and intensive aphasia program, where bird researchers and experts in the fields of speech and language provide a group of activities based on bird observation through the Big Sky Aphasia Program.
The partnership between the two universities began in 2021, and this activity has evolved into an ongoing collaboration between Dr. Victoria Dritz, an avian ecologist in the Wildlife Biology Program at the University of Michigan, and Jenna Mosek and Katherine Off, researchers in the College of Speech-Language, Hearing and Occupational Sciences, who are experts in stroke rehabilitation and research.
Aphasia
One third of stroke survivors suffer from aphasia, and they often have difficulty speaking, understanding spoken language, reading and writing. Aphasia is an acquired neurological disorder, usually a chronic condition that affects language and communication. It can negatively impact individuals' ability to participate in their communities, leading to isolation and depression.
“Aphasia is like identity theft,” says Off, co-director of the Big Sky Aphasia Program at the University of Michigan. People affected by it do not suffer from intellectual difficulties, but rather are self-absorbed within their minds. The challenge lies in changing their linguistic functions.”
She added in a statement on Friday that the most effective rehabilitation strategies combine clinical treatment with opportunities for active participation in daily life.
Bird watching
The University of Michigan's Bird Science Center is a national leader in bird and natural resource conservation. Dritz directs the center, which embraces interdisciplinary research and collaborates with local, national and international organizations to address complex conservation challenges. But the most unique collaboration, according to Dritz, is the partnership with speech-language pathologists, reflecting the University of Michigan's commitment to interdisciplinary learning.
“Birdwatching in groups supports interaction through shared focus during the nature experience, both of which have been shown to improve mental health,” Dritz said. “Birds’ songs and sounds, their seasonal movements and rhythms, and their near-permanent presence in urban and rural areas, make them accessible and interesting.”
She added: “Birds are things that you can follow from anywhere, from sitting and contemplating in front of the window, to plotting a path to see a unique species. You can start where you are. What's in your backyard? "This is the essence of the matter."
Team members work side by side to support program participants through bird-centered activities, where stroke survivors discuss what they see, ask questions, help each other use equipment, and continue the conversation with their families later.
“They go home every night and talk to their caregivers about it, which encourages continued dialogue,” Mosic said.
The team is now focusing on measuring outcomes, training specialists, and expanding the model to include similar programs that benefit stroke survivors with aphasia in other new settings.
When considering artworks that take inspiration from children's toys and popular games, the question arises as to what drives artists to evoke these familiar elements in their works. To answer this question, we spoke to artists Saad Al-Huwaidi and Abdul Rahman Taha, who made games an entry point into broader artistic and human worlds. For Al-Huwaidi, children’s toys represent “the first container of human memory,” and through them his relationship with the world begins and the first experiences of discovery are formed. As for Taha, he views popular games as a visual and human medium that brings the audience closer to the ideas and messages he seeks to convey through his works.
In this conversation, we explore how each of the artists developed their own vision of games as more than just tools for entertainment; In their works, it has become a means of contemplating individual and collective memory, and understanding aspects of the human and social experience.
Memory fuse
Artist Saad Al-Huwaidi presented a first version of his work “Memory Melting” as part of the Misk Art Institute grant for the year 2020. The work consists of melted toys that were reshaped using different techniques. The work embodies the artist’s attempt to rebuild his relationship with his childhood and the street that embraced his early playing years. Although the work deals with personal memory, Al-Huwaidi is preoccupied in his artistic practice with the concept of memory, not only as a retrieval of the past, but as part of a person’s formation and a mirror of his social and cultural experience. He says: “My interest in memory may sometimes stem from a fear of loss, and at other times from a passion for documentation, but it is also an attempt to look in a different way at our presence and our daily existence in this world.”
Five years later, Al-Huwaidi returned to the same idea from a different angle. In “Noor Riyadh 2025,” he presented a new version of “Memory Meltdown,” but it moved from personal memory to a broader memory linked to an entire generation of children. This time, he used emojis to form three illuminated balls of molten toys with a diameter of 2.75 metres. We find here that memory has moved from the framework of the private to the general, as the work depends on the memory and games of children of the current generation, as he explains to us: “The goal was not to compare two memories, but rather to investigate how memory is formed, and the extent to which the artwork is able to interact with it.”
The process of collecting toys went through three stages, each stage adding a new concept and a different space for contemplation. The artist began collecting discarded toys from children residing in Riyadh to raise the question of how something of great sentimental value turns into an item that can be dispensed with: “These toys were at one point a very important part of their lives; They talked to her and became attached to her, and over time they abandoned her.” In the second phase, the toy collection process expanded to include toys from different regions inside and outside the Kingdom. The artist noted the cultural and social differences that games reveal, even though the act of playing is essentially a common human language. Finally, in the third stage, he acquired new toys: “Here I am not collecting a memory that already exists, but rather I am searching for a memory that has not yet been born.” He adds: “The journey of collecting toys led me to a deeper question: Is memory related only to what happened, or are we constantly creating what will become memory in the future?”
The design of the work, the light and the bright colors give an initial impression of joy and innocence, but a heavy feeling creeps in when approaching the work and contemplating the loss of the features of the toys and their solid texture. Al-Huwaidi comments: “The color of the toy is the element of surprise and first attraction for the child, but in this work a transformation occurs; The toys are melted and then frozen to form a solid mass. This transformation, for me, reflects the childhood experience itself. We usually recall childhood as a time of joy and innocence, but in reality it is more complex than that. It also contains moments of fear and sadness, and the child builds his memory in the distance between the joy of color and the cruelty of transformation.”
Popular games
If Saad Al-Huwaidi starts from childhood games in search of memory and its transformations, then Abdul Rahman Taha turns towards popular games as part of cultural identity and collective memory. The artist draws inspiration from it for his visual vocabulary as it is part of the collective memory and local heritage. Among these games, the famous “Medwan” game in the Hijaz region stands out, which the artist dealt with in two different versions. The first is titled “Stability,” and it is a huge model of Al-Madwan’s toy, which, by enlarging its size, recalls its relationship with childhood and nostalgia. He says: “I wanted to compare a person to a toy. Whenever we tighten its rope, it stands up, and when the rope slackens or we let it fall, so does a person. The more he makes an effort, the stronger his return, and the more he neglects aspects of his life, he falls.”
In “Growth,” we see several copies of the work, each of which includes more than 1,800 pieces from the “Medwan” that wrap around embracing the trunk of a palm tree: “Each piece is an experience of falling or failing, and when experiences increase and falling and standing again are repeated, the person becomes more solid and stronger.” The artist points out the symbolism of the palm tree: “It is the embodiment of steadfastness and survival. The palm tree is also one of the symbols of the homeland, and one of the symbols of Medina, the land on which it grew.”
Rules of the game
It is noted that the “Al-Mudwan” collection includes individual messages, but in his work “Al-Karim,” Taha moves from individual experiences to social experiences, as he used the stones of this famous game in Saudi Arabia, which has Indian origins. He was inspired by the rules of the game, the differential value of the red stone over the black and white, creating scenes that discuss social rules and practices.
In the work of the “Committee”, we see three black chairs opposite them a red chair. He explains to us: “In any human gathering we find a person who gives or gains the greatest value, and he becomes the one who enacts the rules of the game or the meeting.” As for “The Main Key,” the scene consists of a red key. The work presents what Taha called “the rule of communication or access.” The work can be read from two angles. Either the key is the solution: a kind word or a gift that opens a locked door for you, or the dilemma is: power or social status that is out of reach, as is the key.
The third work in this series is entitled “Permission,” which is a design in the form of a door made of game stones. Taha describes the meaning of the door by saying: “Any society, no matter how small, imposes a special permission on you to enter,” and he adds: “I have always been preoccupied with the idea that a person is inside a continuous game, governed or controlled by the rules of the game.”
Taha is attracted to the idea of creating a large picture from small pieces, as the work cannot be read clearly unless you look at it from a distance. He says about this: “When thousands of pieces come together, the specific disappears in exchange for the value and message presented by the total picture.” Thus, the social fabric consists of small things and daily practices whose importance no one may notice, but when they come together and accumulate, they gain deeper value and meaning. Taha confirms that the gemstones are still images of social topics and practices in his imagination, which he aspires to transform into works of art in the future.
Cities seeking to cool their fiery streets often set public goals to increase tree cover. However, these goals may overlook the fact that not all shade is equally beneficial, and not all neighborhoods have enough space to plant more trees.
Two new studies conducted by researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada provide a more precise and specific approach that allows monitoring “hot spots” in urban areas and identifying locations where new trees can achieve the greatest benefits.
“Cities often realize they need more tree cover, but they still have to carefully determine where there is room for planting, and where shade will make the biggest difference,” Dr. Melissa McHale, a professor of environmental stewardship at the University of British Columbia and lead author of the two studies, said in a statement Friday.
“hidden heat”
Satellite-based heat maps of cities provide a bird's-eye view of surface temperatures. According to the results of the first study, which were published in the journal Remote Sensing, researchers at the University of British Columbia tested a machine learning technique that improves the accuracy of images taken by the Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellites, up to 10 metres. The maps revealed a temperature variation in the city of Kelowna that was approximately five times greater than what traditional methods showed.
Cities need to know where they can actually plant trees and provide useful shade. In the second study, published in the journal Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, the research team used the CanopyFit model, an approach to mapping the potential of practical agriculture. The model excludes areas unsuitable for agriculture, then evaluates the potential for shade provision along with heat exposure levels.
At the level of the city of Kelowna, the analysis indicated different solutions that fit the nature of each neighborhood. In some regions, rising temperatures and the need for environmental justice coincide with ample land for agriculture, meaning planting more trees could bring significant benefits. On the other hand, other areas face high temperatures and a dire need for shade, but they lack sufficient spaces for new trees, which requires considering other alternatives, such as removing asphalt, amending urban development regulations, or creating shading structures.
The results show that the strategic distribution and spatial arrangement of trees are the most important factors in reducing street temperatures, rather than planting large numbers randomly.
The best ways to plant trees
Regarding the best ways to plant trees to cool streets, the latest research results indicate that planting trees in close groups or connected rows creates a double cooling effect compared to isolated trees. At the same time, she warns against tightly packed canopies, as they may trap geothermal radiation at night and prevent ventilation.
The results also indicated that streets planted with trees extending perpendicular to the direction of the wind provide better cooling. Also, densely shaded trees should not be planted inside the “wind corridors” or natural ventilation channels of the city, because this hinders air movement and increases the feeling of heat.
Studies recommend combining deciduous trees with evergreen trees, which provides high rates of transpiration and cooling in summer.
Modern modeling tools, such as CanopyFit, indicate that planting a single tree on a street completely devoid of vegetation, next to dark surfaces such as asphalt, provides a much higher cooling return than planting it in an area that is already green.
“Cities have limited space and resources for agriculture, so we have to take a strategic approach,” McHale says. “The goal is to create and maintain large, healthy trees in locations where their benefits, including cooling, are needed most.”
