“Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain” by Oliver Sacks
This book tells the tales of the strange and powerful connection between human neurology and music. It is told through selected clinical case studies, where the author, Oliver Sacks, examines how our brain processes, reacts to, and transformed by music.
And the findings are fascinating. Firstly, music is processed in our brain across diverse and resilient neural networks. Even in circumstances when memory, physical coordination, or even language fail due to disease or trauma, musical processing often remains intact.
Moreover, rhythm and melody can also unlock movement in patients with Parkinson’s disease, restore speech to stroke patients, and provide deep emotional grounding for patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Also equally amusing is the many unusual case studies in the book, such as a survivor of lightning strike who suddenly developed adult-onset musical cravings, or persistent musical hallucinations, or a patient with neurological condition called Amusia where the patient has the inability to perceive or recognize musical tones (making a symphony sound like clattering pots and pans), or perhaps the most curious the case of Clive Wearing who has a severe amnesia and cannot form new memories but can still play music fluently.
Furthermore, throughout the book Sacks shows the contrasting range of individuals who can be hypermusical from birth, and individuals who develop their intense musical obsessions or talents a little later in life. Or the curious case of “ear worm”, or the association of certain notes or interval with colour, and many more. Perhaps the most intriguing for me is his thesis that when one hemisphere of the brain is damaged other sections may step up to compensate, as demonstrated in the stories.
All of these are to show that music is not just a cultural phenomenon or entertainment. But music is a medium that is able to engage an unusually wide and deep network of brain regions, more that almost any other human activities.
The writing style, however, is dry and boring. It is written in such a way that it feels like several essays lumped into one, without a unifying thesis or a proper structure. And after a while the template of the storytelling feels repetitive, with the emphasis is focused on the “tales” of music and the brain, and not the scientific explanations behind then. Such an opportunity missed, since the subject matter is so damn interesting.
THE CHAOS THEORY 