04: Music on the Brain: Imagery and Imagination

Although Dr. Sacks does not go into detail about one specific case study in this chapter, at one point he does recall a time when a women wrote to him talking about her husband. She mentioned that her husband has the capability to remember the tunes of songs he has heard, but was not able to recall any of the lyrics to the song. What made this more peculiar was that if he was in a certain environment, he could remember a song that reflected what he was doing at the time, but still could not recall the lyrics themselves. This meant his brain understands the lyrics to the song he is singing, but is not able to remember the lyrics themselves. An example of this would be if it was raining and he went outside for something, and started to sing the tune to “Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head”, but was only able to sing the tune without the lyrics.

Dr. Sacks mentioned a couple of parts of the brain associated with remembering music and the effects it has on you. The parts he mentioned include the auditory cortex, the thalamus, and the basal ganglia. The auditory cortex he stated is stimulated whenever someone is either actively listening to music, or even when someone is just remembering music they once heard. The thalamus helps relay this information to other parts of the brain in order to interpret this music in an emotional way. The basal ganglia is associated with this when imagining yourself playing the instrument to make the music. Dr. Sacks mentions that people who imagine themselves playing the instrument multiple times, with the music in their head as well, can help them perform better in real life.

One brain part that Dr. Sacks didn’t mention that I would imagine would play a significant role in music memory is the amygdala. The amygdala is partially responsible for emotions and memory. Each of these is important when recalling a song you heard in the past.

Another part of the brain that could specifically be damaged and be causing this patient’s symptoms is the hippocampus. This part of the brain helps store long term memory information, which includes language information. If this was damaged but the auditory cortex was still functional, a patient could remember a tune to a song, but not be able to recall the words.

Dr. Sacks did not mention whether or not this patient was treatable or not, but I would guess that he did not seek treatment as it probably did not impair his life in any significant way. This patient would easily be able to overcome his obstacle just by singing out the tune and asking someone if they remember this song and what the lyrics are. This could also possibly be overcome by using the app called “Shazam” that recognizes song tunes and tells you the name of the song. He could just sing the song and once the app finds it, he could look up the lyrics.

The extremeness of this patient’s symptoms is most likely not common, but minor symptoms of this are quite common. A lot of people randomly remember a songs tune, but forget the lyrics, or only remember a small verse. This patient is unique because he cannot remember the lyrics for any song at all, but someone still comprehends the lyrics and can relate the songs to his environment.