The Left Atrium

Book review Tuning into the mind

Who Mistook his Wife Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain Oliver Sacks MD for a Hat, Dr. S sings that Alfred A. Knopf; 2007 neurology has many 381 pp $34.95 ISBN 978-0-676-97978-7 words for every neural or mental function of which patients are derived — eurologist Oliver Sacks’ great words for everything they gift, as seen in a number of are not, but not for what N engaging volumes such as they really are. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Sacks’ driving curios- Hat and Awakenings, is to draw on ity to understand the the startling and extraordinary stories story of illness within the of individuals suffering from aberra- entire context of a per- tions in neurologic function, and to son’s life — in other use these narratives to work back- words, the medical and wards toward understanding their the human dimensions pathology. Beginning with the prem- — is what makes his ise (argued with much support) that work of particular inter- music, like language, is a central ele- est to physicians. The ment of what makes us human, his bonus is that his stories object in Musicophilia: Tales of Music also contain positive and the Brain is to comprehend the medical lessons about neurological basis of music. human musicality. (For An amateur musician himself, instance, music therapy Sacks unites personal and family sto- has proved successful in ries with those of patients and other helping patients with correspondents from over the years to everything from parkin-

investigate how both the pathological Courtesy of Alfred A. Knopf sonian immobility to and normal may lie on a continuum. Alzheimer dementia.) The range of what he studies goes even compose music. In each chapter, This book allows us to stand in from severe musical hallucinations, at Sacks tells us the story of a person, wonder, alongside Sacks, at the hu- one end, to the phenomenon of perfect moves to the neurological discussion, man brain — this time in conjunction pitch; from musicogenic epilepsy to and then on to the newest concepts of with music, something many physi- catchy tunes we can’t get out of our neuroscience and imaging techniques cians hold dear. heads. that have actually allowed us to watch His selection of stories (and there the brain function. Linda Hutcheon PhD are many) is aimed at showing that Sacks cites one of his many corre- Professor of English and Comparative things that we think should be linked spondents, psychoanalyst Leo Rangell, Literature have, in fact, different neural represen- who wrote in a newspaper article that University of Toronto tation. Some individuals can under- he considered himself a kind of living Michael Hutcheon MD stand rhythm but not melody, and vice laboratory, an experiment in nature Deputy Physician-in-chief versa; some who cannot speak can re- through an auditory prism. Each of for Education spond to music. Some, who, because the book’s many protagonists is this University Health Network of accident or disease, have no mem- kind of living laboratory for Sacks as University of Toronto

DOI:10.1503/cmaj.080035 ory can nevertheless play or sing or well. In the opera version of The Man Toronto, Ont.