Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia - Amusia

Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, discusses amusia, the inability or inhibited ability of the brain to process music. The story related in the video comes from Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Dr. Sacks's latest book. For more information, visit http://www.oliversacks.com or http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400033539

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• oliver
• sacks
• amusia
• musicophilia
• music
• neurology
• neurologist
• brain
• amnesia
• science

[burf69]

Most major record label executives suffer from this condition.

[PauleQueenie]

I am very amused

[PhysiPhile]

@ellandelachapelle Oh yeah there are tons of cool case studies showing certain lesions can enhanced musical cognition. But I think you're misunderstanding me. It's not musical ability that is blocked - it is the physical connection between external input (cranial nerve eight) and the circuits that make the experience of music occur. So I would predict that those who have this problem after previously being able to experience music can still imagine music like in a dream, just not from the radio.

[ellandelachapelle]

@PhysiPhile How can you be so certain that the EMOTIONAL ability is blocked by these damages? Most people who have had a stroke react very much to music. (and it is often used in rehabilitation.) The best example (that I know of) is 2011 Nobel Prize winner poet Tomas Tranströmer. Who is a great left hand pianist after his stroke! (paralyzed in his right side and suffering from aphasia since 1990.)

[PhysiPhile]

@ellandelachapelle It's pretty simple. The experience of music is both recognizing sound pressure (volume) and. more importantly, musical information (i.e. the feelings of the song). If for whatever reason (e.g. birth defect, tumor, stroke, etc) there are no connections between the emotional and sound pressure action potential you experience just noise because noise is more fundamental and more ingrained than musical cognition.

[Task5003]

I love Oliver Sacks. Reading his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, it's a great book and he's a great guy.

[thyran]

@BloggerMusicMan

Pretty much comes with the package for deaf people.

[DannyDaWriter]

I'm a musician and honestly there is nothing more that I want than amusia.

[shelbielynnVEVO]

Only very, VERY few people have absolute pitch. That's a shame....

[electrovox1212]

FWIW,I suffer from non-congenital(??) aphasia..the inability to comprehend word

meanings/sentence structure(English)..love the subject matter of this vid!!

[shrinerspark]

I am basically the complete opposite of this... extremely musically sensitive... but I can understand how someone might have this condition. I certainly wouldn't enjoy listening to pots and pans rattling, that's for sure!