Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
By Oliver Sacks.
Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does -humans are a musical species.
Oliver Sacks;s compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we think of our brains, and of the human experience. In Musicophilia, he examines the powers of music through the individual experience of patients, musicians, and everyday people -from a man who is struck by lightning and suddenly inspired to become a pianist at the age of forty-two, to an entire group of children with Williams Syndrome who are hypermusical from birth; from people with "amusia", to whom a symphony sounds like clattering the pots and pans, to a man whose memory spans only sever seconds - for everything but music.
Our exquisite sensitivity to music can sometimes go wrong: Sacks explores how catchy tunes can subjects us to hours of mental replay, and how a surprising number of people acquire nonstop musical hallucinations that assault them night and day. Yet far more frequently, music goes right: Sacks describes hoy music can animate people with Parkinson's disease who cannot otherwise move, give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak, and calm and organize people whose memories are ravaged by Alzheimer's or amnesia.
Music is irresistible, hunting, and unforgettable, and in Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks tell us why.
Chapters:
By Oliver Sacks.
Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does -humans are a musical species.
Oliver Sacks;s compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we think of our brains, and of the human experience. In Musicophilia, he examines the powers of music through the individual experience of patients, musicians, and everyday people -from a man who is struck by lightning and suddenly inspired to become a pianist at the age of forty-two, to an entire group of children with Williams Syndrome who are hypermusical from birth; from people with "amusia", to whom a symphony sounds like clattering the pots and pans, to a man whose memory spans only sever seconds - for everything but music.
Our exquisite sensitivity to music can sometimes go wrong: Sacks explores how catchy tunes can subjects us to hours of mental replay, and how a surprising number of people acquire nonstop musical hallucinations that assault them night and day. Yet far more frequently, music goes right: Sacks describes hoy music can animate people with Parkinson's disease who cannot otherwise move, give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak, and calm and organize people whose memories are ravaged by Alzheimer's or amnesia.
Music is irresistible, hunting, and unforgettable, and in Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks tell us why.
Chapters:
Part I: Hunted by Music
1.- A Bolt from the Blue: Sudden Musicophilia.
2.- A Strangely Familiar Feeling: Musical Seizures.
3.- Fest of Music: Musicogenic Epilepsy.
4.- Music of the Brain: Imagery and Imagination.
5.- Brainworms, Sticky Music, and Catchy Tunes.
6.- Musical Hallucinations.
Part II: A Range of Musicality
7.- Sense and Sensibility: A Range of Musicality.
8.- Things Fall Apart: Amusia and Dysharmonia.
9.- Papa Blows His Nose in G: Absolute Pitch.
10.- Pitch Imperfect: Cochlear Amusia.
11.- In Living Stereo: Why We Have Two Hears.
12.- Two Thousand Operas: Musical Savants.
13.- An Auditory World: Music and Blindness.
14.- The Key of Clear Green: Synesthesia and Music.
Part III: Memory, Movement, and Music
15.- In The Moment: Music and Amnesia.
16.- Speech and Song: Aphasia and Music Therapy.
17.- Accidental Davening: Dyskinesia and Cantillation.
18.- Come Together: Music and Tourette's Syndrome.
19.- Keeping Time: Rhythm and Movement.
20.- Kinetic Melody: Parkinson's Disease and Music Therapy.
21.- Phantom Fingers: The Case of the One-Armed Pianist.
22.- Athletes of the Small Muscles: Musician's Dystonia.
Part IV: Emotion, Identity, and Music.
23.- Awake and Asleep: Musical Dreams.
24.- Seduction and Indifference.
25.- Lamentations: Music and Depression.
26.- The Case of Harry S.: Music and Emotion.
27.- Irrepressible: Music and Temporal Lobes.
28.- A Hypermusical Species: Williams Syndrome.
29.- Music and Identity: Dementia and Music Therapy.
100.500% recomendado (Porcentaje establecido en honor a la inflacion acumulada en 12 meses de Mozambique. El "chascarro" economico del año).
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Y a mi me decian que estaba loco cuando pregonaba por todos lados que la musica me curaba. Claro, ahora lo dice un profesor de neurologia de Columbia y todos compran su puto libro. Me incluyo. Musicophilia es un escrito delicado, y con ritmo, que a la vez, es tremendamente tecnico y "profesional". Sacks explica, con su pasion musical al limite del desborde, los distintos procesos y aspectos en que los tonos, ritmos, compases y toda esa chuchoca so
n relevantes para la vida de los humanos.
Y lo hace, obvio, con talento. Desde la nunca bien ponderada depresion, hasta el temido Alzheimer's son tratados con terapias musicales que van desde escuchar continuamente piezas compuestas, a la ejecucion de distintos instrumentos.
Es un libro maravilloso y que llega muchas veces a mostrar el lado obsesivo con que Sacks relata sus historias. Es parte de su encanto.
En una de esas, por muy rococo que sea, un poco de Vivaldi o Chopin le ayudan a ese pobre hombre a no confundir mas a su mujer con un sombrero, digo yo.
n relevantes para la vida de los humanos.Y lo hace, obvio, con talento. Desde la nunca bien ponderada depresion, hasta el temido Alzheimer's son tratados con terapias musicales que van desde escuchar continuamente piezas compuestas, a la ejecucion de distintos instrumentos.
Es un libro maravilloso y que llega muchas veces a mostrar el lado obsesivo con que Sacks relata sus historias. Es parte de su encanto.
En una de esas, por muy rococo que sea, un poco de Vivaldi o Chopin le ayudan a ese pobre hombre a no confundir mas a su mujer con un sombrero, digo yo.
Nota: El titulo del blog, en este caso, prefiero explicarlo. Es una transcripcion absurda e irreproducible de Adagio KV 411 para cuatro flautas de Mozart. Obviamente, solo pude tomar en cuenta la primera flauta... Duh!
3 comentarios:
demonios!!! muero por leer musicophilia... la semana pasada terminé (al fin) "el hombre que confundió a su mujer con un sombrero" y aunque no quería mucho, sacks le puso harta música igual.
claro que el asunto le salió más literario que médico... a mi me gustan los datos y como que quedé con gusto a poco.
pero es tan cierto eso de que la música sana. cuando muero en vida (que pasa bien seguido), lo único que me trae de vuelta es la música. es por lo que vale la pena vivir.
o al menos a mi me funciona.
p.d: oliver sacks, al igual que tú, no puede vivir sin agua... siempre que viaja, busca una piscina o el mar y se queda feliz ahí todo el rato
te extraño, desgraciado... tanto, tanto, tanto!!!!
vuelve luego pues... y así me explicas lo de zimbawe
chau
Jodiste, me lo vas a tener que prestar cuando vuelvas a chile.
=)
Bueno, está más que claro que cuando la ciencia valida algo de sentido común se convierte en boom intelectual.
Lo bueno es que se materializa un campo de investigación muy interesante, aunque no sé si tan novedoso.
Abrazo!!
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