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The study of the relationship between the brain and music began in 1900’s, but wasn’t well-known as there was little studies done on the topic, however as years passed with greater advancements within technology and further in-depth studies, we have gained the ability to enhance our understanding on how the brain functions with music to enhance life. In Oliver Sacks’ novel, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat”, he displays his interest in different neurological diseases and how it has affected individuals within their lives in term of losses. Throughout the first part of the novel, Oliver Sack’s does studies on how neurological deficiencies damages causes lack of brain functions on behaviours and standards of living. This idea is further expanded and exemplified through Dr. Jim Davies of Carleton University, as he describes this concept through his PowerPoint on the connections of “learning and memory in representations of cognitive science” and how it affects an individual. In the case of Dr. P’s neurological disease, it displays how humans can use music to communicate …show more content…
P, we see that he had lived a normal healthy lifestyle and was a talented musical teacher, however, during his time of teaching he had developed a rare disorder. In this quote, it is seen that Dr. P suffered from a neurological disorder from which he would often mistaken inanimate objects for people such as mistaking his wife for a hat, as well as has a problem recognising people by face. He lacks the ability to store short and long term memories as he battles with the struggles of neurological diseases. Therefore, it is evident that he struggles with retrograde amnesia, which is the lack to grasp as well as store memories from the past, as well as anterograde amnesia, which is the inability to make new memories. Therefore, with the lost of these memories, Dr. P’s only way of expressing himself is through his art as he suffers from a loss to concept basic
Whether she compares it to illnesses, or images, the earworm is an annoying result of music. “The phenomenon of brainworms seem similar, too, to the way in which people with autism of Tourette’s syndrome or obsessive-compulsive disorder may become hooked by a sound or a word or a noise and repeat it, or echo it, aloud to themselves, for weeks at a time.”(9) Sacks compares the pathological repetition to different illnesses. By doing so, he draws out the idea that a brainworm, or musical image, is a neurological condition. “Some of my correspondents compare brainworms to visual afterimages, and as someone who is prone to both, I feel their similarity too. . .After reading EEGS intently for several hours, I may have to stop because I start seeing EEGS squiggles all over the walls and ceiling. . .And astronauts, returning from a week spent in a near-zero gravity conditions of space, need several days to regain their ‘earth legs’ once again.”(13) Sacks compares the brainworm to repetitive images that stick in your head or even space travel jet lag. He shows contrast by explaining the difference between repetitive music, and an earworm. “Perhaps, therefore, we should not be surprised, should not complain if the balance sometimes shifts too far and our musical sensitivity becomes a vulnerability.”(15) Many of our greatest singers, composers, and poets exert repetition in their
O'Donnell, Laurence. "Music and the Brain." "Brain & Mind" Magazine. 1999. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
..., D. (1993). Music and the Mind. MENC, Retrieved August 25, 2003 from MENC, Academic Achievement and Music database.
Therefore, they summarize that the reason why Clive suffers in the Amnesia is caused by the hippocampus is not affected. The Hippocampus is a structure that is located inside the temporal lobe, and that is a part of the limbic system. The function of the Hippocampus is similar to a post office used for encoding, storage and recalling memories, all presenting information would first remain, analysed and encoded in the Hippocampus then transmit them to different areas of the brain. In other words, Clive is unable to encode memory and hold information which is currently aware, and it is difficult to form new long-term memory such as explicit and semantic memory. Clive Wearing, now 78 years old, still cannot recover from the anterograde amnesia, he becomes a man who has the shortest memory in the world.
Mannes, Elena. "www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136859090/the-power-of-music-to-affect-the-brain." Mannes, Elena. The Power of Music to Affect the Brain. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011.
Music and the Brain: Processing and Responding (A General Overview). For any individual who either avidly listens to or performs music, it is understood that many melodies have amazing effects on both our emotions and our perception. To address the effects of music on the brain, it seems most logical to initially map the auditory and neural pathways of sound. In the case of humans, the mechanism responsible for receiving and transmitting sound to the brain is the ears.
A 1949 study of 113 German artists, writers, architects, and composers was one of the first to undertake an extensive, in-depth investigation of both artists and their relatives. Although two-thirds of the 113 artists and writers were "psychically normal," there were more suicides and "insane and neurotic" individuals in the artistic group than could be expected in the general population, with the highest rates of psychiatric abnormality found in poets (50%) and musicians (38%). (1) Many other similar tests revealed th...
In the first part of the documentary it becomes apparent that Albert Einstein’s brain looks different. One of the more striking differences is there is a knob in his right primary motor cortex. This knob is a result of an enlarged gyrus that controls his left hand. It turns out that many musicians who have had lessons from childhood onward have this very same knot. People who play stringed instruments tend to have this knot on the left side, while people who play the piano tend to have the knot on the right side of their brains. This demonstrates the brain’s remarkable ability to change itself to fit the demands being placed upon it by the environment.
“The Vow” is a movie that encases the turmoil and hardship associated with retrograde amnesia and the classic symptoms and steps associated with recovering and potentially regaining lost memory. Taking into account the information gained through multiple sources; such as, lecture of Mental Health, medical databases, and the personal experiences of Krickett Carpenter, the Vow provides both an accurate and inaccurate depiction of retrograde amnesia.
Both of these approaches have been brought to bear on the brain mechanisms underlying musical imagery, and we’ll address each approach in turn. Lesion studies of musical
The narrator suggests later tells the readers that he is not able to see into Dr. P’s world, but rather see the results of what is going on in his mind (Sacks 716). In Dr. P’s state of his abstract visual impairment, it actually opens the narrators eyes. It opens his eyes to see that without proper perception, reason, logic, and sense, life cannot be lived to its’ fullest potential. Sacks includes in the story, Neurology and psychology, curiously, though they talk of everything else, almost never talk of
He continues to have a grasp on language and facts which he, I assume, learned earlier in his life. For example, when his wife is asking him is Reading should be familiar to him and he remarks on the spelling of the city and its pronunciation. He has also retained his ability to read and perform music. I found it interesting that he was able to play entire songs (which obviously last longer than seven seconds) but couldn’t read a book because he would forget what had come before. Perhaps there is an entirely different area of the brain at work in the memory or retrieval of music? As far as his ability to create new semantic memory, the only possible evidence I viewed in the film was when he was shaving in front of the mirror and there was a note to the side. It was a list of things for him to do like brush teeth, shave, etc but I also noticed, dentures on the list. He surely knows the definition of dentures from before but I wonder if he knew how to care for dentures (which I assume are something he has needed post illness) or if that was something he possibly learned to do since his illness and has retained that knowledge. Other than that, I didn’t notice anything that he learned and then retained that information since his
This disease creates holes that cause this part of the brain to whither and eventually die. This disease mostly affects the left side of the brain that’s in charge of many things such as memory, creativity, and language. Language is one of the most important regions it governs since language is in charge of turning on and off the other circuits of the brain so other regions can be ‘shushed’ so the brain mainly focuses on talking and understanding through language. However, if a person has Frontotemporal Dementia, language is damaged which in turn means the other regions aren’t silenced. Therefore, this leads to an overwhelming sensation to create any forms of art. The feeling is so intense that even people who had no art background become obsessed with art; a total one eighty of their personality takes place. This is what leads to the obsessive repetition that was present in Ravel and Anne Adams. They are obsessed because their basal ganglia have been altered to coexist with the desire to create and create and create repetitively. As chapter 3 mentions, the basal ganglia is what controls voluntary movements. It is often referred to as the “reptile brain” since it is in charge of the normal actions like eat, sleep, excrete, and repeat. However, if it is damaged and mixed with other parts of the brain, it starts to repeat the actions that were not ‘shushed’ since the
Henry Molaison or known as HM contributes to the deep understanding of memory by previous scientists and until now. His case had been a huge research and discussions among the well known scientists during his time and these results in the study of memories. Henry Molaison is living with a severe epilepsy where he need to undergo a surgery as medications were no longer gave him effects for his disease. So, his surgeon William Beecher Scoville suction out both of his hippocampus and when he got recovered from the surgery, his doctor realised that, Henry was having amnesia and seek him for another doctor. What confusing the doctors is that, even though the surgery was a success where Henry seizures decreasing; he is now facing dense memory loss. Then, once it was realized that the hippocampus plays a crucial roles for memory; the surgery of removing hippocampus was then banned for all and this brings to deep study of memory and hippocampus.
Cooper, Belle. " How Music Affects and Benefits Your Brain."lifehacker.come. N.p., 11 22 2013. Web. 3