{"id":51,"date":"2009-05-21T11:19:55","date_gmt":"2009-05-21T15:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/?p=51"},"modified":"2018-09-10T15:41:31","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T19:41:31","slug":"music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkinsonsism and Music&#8217;s Ability to Heal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-51-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/14-oliver-sacks.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/14-oliver-sacks.mp4\">https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/14-oliver-sacks.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p><strong>Oliver Sacks<\/strong>: Although personally music has been very important to me from before I can remember. As a physician it only hit me really in the 1960s, and that was when I found myself at a hospital in the Bronx seeing the frozen post-encephalitic patients whom I later wrote about in <em>Awakenings<\/em>. These were people with very profound Parkinsonism, so profound that sometimes they would stay absolutely motionless for hours on end and could not initiate any movement or speech or indeed thought, although one learned that later, but so much so, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on with these people?\u201d \u201cAre they there?\u201d \u201cIs there anyone at home?\u201d And it was originally the nurses and people who knew of these patients well who said they could be transformed by music. If there\u2019s music, these people could dance, they could sing, they could talk, they can do things, they can think, they can become almost normal while music is there.<\/p>\n<p>And then I saw this for myself, and I was stupefied. I don\u2019t know what term to use. And 40 years later I find it astounding and it needs to be seen as someone for whom music\u2014someone for whom movement is unimaginable suddenly able to move. But it strictly goes with the music, and when the music stop, they stop. So music therapy for these Parkinsonian patients was my first experience as a physician, and I wondered what sort of music was involved or any music could do so. It didn\u2019t have to be familiar music or loved music. It doesn\u2019t sometimes have to be a conscious attention to the music. But obviously the rhythm and the beat and pulse of music was very important. And this would spontaneously and almost automatically I think allow people to move. So the good music had a strong rhythm, not overwhelming but a strong rhythm. But obviously I think if people like the music, so much the better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Interviewer<\/strong>: And what have you found out about or what do you believe is going on in the brain that creates this effect?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Oliver Sacks<\/strong>: Well, this reminds me of the way in which all of us want to keep time and tap time, and how children spontaneously start to dance or keep time to music they hear or imagine. And that seems to be a very strong human attribute to have motor responses, movements synchronized with the pulse of music, the sounds.\u00a0 And uniquely in the human brain, at least uniquely among mammals, one finds connections between the auditory parts of the brain and what\u2019s called the dorsal pre-motor cortex, some of the motor parts. And it seems to be this conjunction of auditory and motor, which is so crucial for all of us in responding to music, but especially if you have something like Parkinson\u2019s. So I think that\u2019s one of the very important thing whether the shape of the melody and the life of the music. Kant the philosopher called the music the quickening art. And music seems inherently alive and to give a feeling of life and emotion and ongoing, and of a journey, a sort of trajectory. And I suspect important all of these could be important as well. It\u2019s just not the rhythm.\u00a0 Everything in music carries one along.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/blog\/cognition\/how-music-can-reach-the-silenced-brain\/31\/\">Also read Concetta Tomain&#8217;s article, &#8220;How Music Can Reach the Silent Brain.&#8221;<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/14-oliver-sacks.mp4 Oliver Sacks: Although personally music has been very important to me from before I can remember. As a physician it only hit me really in the 1960s, and that was when I found myself at a hospital in the Bronx seeing the frozen post-encephalitic patients whom I later wrote about in Awakenings. These were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,5039,5035],"tags":[571,1005,982,4989,5053,5058,986],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-music-and-medicine","category-music-and-the-brain","tag-brain","tag-cognition","tag-medicine","tag-music-therapy","tag-oliver-sacks","tag-parkinsons","tag-science"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Music and the Brain ~ Parkinsonsism and Music&#039;s Ability to Heal | Music Instinct | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Music and the Brain ~ Parkinsonsism and Music&#039;s Ability to Heal | Music Instinct | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/14-oliver-sacks.mp4 Oliver Sacks: Although personally music has been very important to me from before I can remember. As a physician it only hit me really in the 1960s, and that was when I found myself at a hospital in the Bronx seeing the frozen post-encephalitic patients whom I later wrote about in Awakenings. These were [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Music Instinct\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-21T15:19:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-10T19:41:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"colin fitzpatrick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"colin fitzpatrick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/video\\\/interviews\\\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\\\/51\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/video\\\/interviews\\\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\\\/51\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"colin fitzpatrick\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cab424d73e72751ebca07e116f79f835\"},\"headline\":\"Parkinsonsism and Music&#8217;s Ability to Heal\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-21T15:19:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-10T19:41:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/video\\\/interviews\\\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\\\/51\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":592,\"commentCount\":16,\"keywords\":[\"brain\",\"cognition\",\"medicine\",\"music therapy\",\"Oliver Sacks\",\"Parkinsons\",\"science\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Interviews\",\"Music and Medicine\",\"Music and the Brain\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/video\\\/interviews\\\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\\\/51\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/video\\\/interviews\\\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\\\/51\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/video\\\/interviews\\\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\\\/51\\\/\",\"name\":\"Music and the Brain ~ Parkinsonsism and Music's Ability to Heal | Music Instinct | PBS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-21T15:19:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-10T19:41:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cab424d73e72751ebca07e116f79f835\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/video\\\/interviews\\\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\\\/51\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/video\\\/interviews\\\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\\\/51\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/video\\\/interviews\\\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\\\/51\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Parkinsonsism and Music&#8217;s Ability to Heal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/\",\"name\":\"Music Instinct\",\"description\":\"An investigative look into the science of music.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/search-results\\\/?q={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cab424d73e72751ebca07e116f79f835\",\"name\":\"colin fitzpatrick\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/musicinstinct\\\/author\\\/colin-fitzpatrick\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Music and the Brain ~ Parkinsonsism and Music's Ability to Heal | Music Instinct | PBS","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Music and the Brain ~ Parkinsonsism and Music's Ability to Heal | Music Instinct | PBS","og_description":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/14-oliver-sacks.mp4 Oliver Sacks: Although personally music has been very important to me from before I can remember. As a physician it only hit me really in the 1960s, and that was when I found myself at a hospital in the Bronx seeing the frozen post-encephalitic patients whom I later wrote about in Awakenings. These were [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/","og_site_name":"Music Instinct","article_published_time":"2009-05-21T15:19:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-10T19:41:31+00:00","author":"colin fitzpatrick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"colin fitzpatrick","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/"},"author":{"name":"colin fitzpatrick","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/#\/schema\/person\/cab424d73e72751ebca07e116f79f835"},"headline":"Parkinsonsism and Music&#8217;s Ability to Heal","datePublished":"2009-05-21T15:19:55+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-10T19:41:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/"},"wordCount":592,"commentCount":16,"keywords":["brain","cognition","medicine","music therapy","Oliver Sacks","Parkinsons","science"],"articleSection":["Interviews","Music and Medicine","Music and the Brain"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/","name":"Music and the Brain ~ Parkinsonsism and Music's Ability to Heal | Music Instinct | PBS","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-05-21T15:19:55+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-10T19:41:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/#\/schema\/person\/cab424d73e72751ebca07e116f79f835"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/video\/interviews\/music-and-the-brain-parkinsonsism-and-musics-ability-to-heal\/51\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Parkinsonsism and Music&#8217;s Ability to Heal"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/","name":"Music Instinct","description":"An investigative look into the science of music.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/search-results\/?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/#\/schema\/person\/cab424d73e72751ebca07e116f79f835","name":"colin fitzpatrick","url":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/author\/colin-fitzpatrick\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/musicinstinct\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}