Japan’s TV Asahi has apologized to the family of a 12-year-old singer, who was left in a coma after inhaling helium for a TV show.
The girl, a member of the pop group 3B Junior, was taking part in a game that involved changing her voice when she fell unconscious on January 28.
It is thought she suffered an air embolism, restricting the blood supply to her brain. She has not been named.
According to Japan Today, as of February 5, the girl has regained consciousness.
However, she only has limited movement and cannot yet speak clearly.
3B Junior comprises more than 20 singers, all aged between 10 and 16.
A statement on 3B Junior’s official website said the band were “praying for a quick recovery” for their co-star.
Speaking to the press on February 4, executives from TV Asahi apologized to the girl and her family.
They said the canister from which she had inhaled the gas was marked “for adult use only”, but producers had overlooked the warning.
Managing director Toru Takeda said he had delayed announcing the accident to the public because he expected the singer to make an earlier recovery.
He only revealed the information after doctors saw signs of improvement, and he sought the blessing of the girl’s parents first.
TV Asahi added that an internal investigation would be conducted into the case. Local media have reported that police will also look into it.
Toru Takeda said the TV show, entitled 3B Junior Stardust Shoji, was originally scheduled for broadcast on February 24 but may now be discontinued.
Although inhaling helium from balloons is a common parlor trick, it can prove fatal.
Lynne Rosen and John Littig, a couple who hosted a radio show called The Pursuit of Happiness, took their own lives by asphyxiation, US authorities say.
John Littig, 47, and Lynne Rosen, 45, were found in their New York home on Wednesday.
They both left notes. John Littig said they wanted to die together and Lynne Rosen apologized to her family, police said.
Radio station WBAI tweeted: “RIP Lynne Rosen + John Littig. Partners on the air and in life.”
The station aired Lynne Rosen’s monthly radio show The Pursuit of Happiness, on which John Littig would regularly appear.
The couple were partners in a self-help venture called Why Not Now, their website says.
Lynne Rosen and John Littig, who hosted radio show The Pursuit of Happiness, took their own lives by asphyxiation
It says Lynne Rosen was a life coach, speaker and consultant, while John Littig was described as a motivational speaker, workshop facilitator and life coach.
It is not clear why the couple, who were known for giving advice and life lessons, decided to kill themselves.
In one YouTube clip, they can be seen discussing a quote attributed to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt: “Do one thing every day that scares you.”
“People get scared to make changes and step outside of that comfort zone, right, John?” Lynne Rosen says.
John Littig responds: “Stepping outside your comfort zone is very important. Or alternatively, you can start to get comfortable with change.”
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Japanese researchers have discovered that lar gibbons use the same techniques as human soprano singers to make their melodic but piercing calls.
When the apes made calls while in an atmosphere rich in helium, the team analyzed the calls’ frequencies.
As the team report, the apes were able to control the natural frequencies of their “vocal tracts”.
Such control, exemplified by sopranos, was thought to be unique to humans.
Humans share a great deal of the biological equipment of sound production with apes. That includes first of all the “source” – the vocal folds that humans and many animals share.
There is also the “vocal tract” – the oesophagus and trachea and the mouth, which are well known in humans to shape sung notes and subtle vowel sounds.
Japanese researchers have discovered that lar gibbons use the same techniques as human soprano singers to make their melodic but piercing calls
In humans the vocal tract acts as a filter on the sound from the source, and the “source-filter theory” held that the separate, fine control of the vocal tract to be the product of a long evolution in the development of the subtleties of speech.
Singing too has evolved, and soprano singers reach their piercing high notes by precisely controlling the shape of their vocal tract to match its natural, resonant frequency with multiples of the one being produced by their vocal folds.
Now Takeshi Nishimura of Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute and his colleagues have tested whether lar gibbons (also known as white-handed gibbons, Hylobates lar) have this same separate control – by using helium.
As anyone who has breathed helium knows, its presence raises the pitch of the voice. It increases the natural resonant frequency in the vocal tract because the speed of sound in helium is very different from that in air.
That shift allowed the team to record calls in helium and examine separately the sounds of gibbons’ “pure-tone” vocalizations from the vocal folds as well as how they were modified in the vocal tract.
Detailed analyses of the frequencies produced showed that the gibbons modified their vocal tracts to match multiples of the vocal folds’ frequencies – just like soprano singers.
Dr. Takeshi Nishimura said the findings were significant – not only that the “source-filter theory” was not the preserve of human physiology, but also that the gibbons had mastered techniques that in humans were only found in professional singers.
He explained that it upended a long history of research suggesting the control humans enjoy is the product of a long line of physiological and anatomical changes under the influence of evolution.
“The present study challenges that concept and throws new insight into the studies on biological foundations producing the diversifications in primate vocalizations, including human speech,” he said.
“It is hoped that this study will encourage researchers in various research fields to conduct further investigations of primate vocalizations and that such empirical evidence will lead to a deeper understanding of the evolution of speech and language.”
