Oliver Sacks Details Healing Power of Music

“What if dogs don’t like Mozart, what if they like dog music?” renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks mused to a packed audience Tuesday night. “I think we need to enlarge our idea of music and be less anthropocentric.”

Sack’s point wasn’t completely off-topic. Rather, it was in reference to years of study he has done on musical perception in the human brain and the importance of music in treating mentally impaired patients. In a talk given to the Center for Bioethics at Columbia University Medical Center, Sacks—a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons—spoke at length on the healing power of music, and how it ties us all together, even those of us on the fringe of consciousness. Sacks came to Columbia last year after years at the Alfred Einstein College of Medicine, where his writings and research earned him national prominence, and was named a “University Artist.”

Sacks—best known for his neurological case studies in which he describes patients struggling to live with conditions ranging from Tourette’s syndrome to autism—captivated his listeners through describing the unique connection that exists between human cognition and music. “They could respond to music. It was part of the cure,” Sacks said of his patients.

Several neuroscience studies have indeed shown that there exists in the human brain a specialized system dedicated solely to processing emotions elicited by music. Sacks pointed out “you cannot look at a brain and say ‘this is the brain of a mathematician.’ But you can tell the difference between a regular brain and that of a musician.”

In his talk, Sacks spoke in detail on his unique experience working with patients who suffered from sleeping sickness—a devastating illness that attacks the brain, leaving some victims in a statue-like condition, speechless and motionless—as well as other mental disorders like aphasias and Alzheimer’s.

Music “survives amnesia, dementia and much else,” Sacks contended, explaining that music plays a part in therapy for people suffering from aphasia—a condition that makes one unable to produce or comprehend language—and can even contribute to the bettering of patients faced with advanced neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s syndrome. According to Sacks, aphasia patients can partially recover through “music intonation therapy” because the neural apparatus responsible for musical perception is in close proximity to the memory areas of the brain.

Sacks quoted an Alzheimer’s suffering patient’s relative: “Music is one of the only things that keeps him grounded in the world.”

Following the talk, Dr. Sacks answered audience questions that spanned topics like the border between music and noise, animal responses to music and links between the centers of aggression and music.

Aspiring biochemist Max Horlback, CC ’11, pointed out the “anecdotal” tone of the lecture that, combined with Sacks’ sharp British humor, kept the audience hooked.

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