Monday August 7 5:49 PM ET
Musical Hallucinations Linked to
Brain Disorders
dailynews.yahoo.com
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Stroke often robs the
ability to speak or to move an arm or leg. For a handful
of people, stroke or other brain disorders have another
effect--''musical hallucinations'' in which patients hear a
constant melody. Now doctors have zeroed in on the
part of the brain responsible for the bizarre symptom.
Lesions in a part of the brain stem called the dorsal pons
seem to be behind the 11 reported cases of musical
hallucinations, researchers report in the August issue of
Neurology. Dr. Eva Schielke and her colleagues at
University Hospital Charite in Berlin, Germany,
describe the case of one 57-year-old man whose bout with meningitis caused
him to hear a boys' choir singing folk tunes.
The patient only became aware of the hallucinations several hours after they
began, and, according to Schielke's team, he thought he was hearing a
``celebration'' in the schoolyard near the hospital. His musical interludes lasted
for 5 weeks.
Only 10 other such cases have been reported. When musical hallucinations
occur, it is usually among psychiatric patients or older people who have gone
deaf.
Schielke told Reuters Health that among people who lose their hearing, this
long-term sensory deprivation leads to a ''release of musical memories.'' In the
case of her patient and the 10 others, however, lesions on the dorsal pons seem
to ''interrupt'' certain nerve fibers in the brain stem.
No one knows why these patients hear music in particular, according to Schielke.
And while some of them are ``mildly annoyed'' by the hallucinations, others find
it a ``pleasant distraction,'' she said.
SOURCE: Neurology 2000;55:454-455. |
