Musician’s head injury triggered rare synesthesia, causing him to ‘see’ music

After a musician suffered a head harm in a motorbike accident, one thing uncommon occurred: He started to “see” music and developed heightened creativity for just a few months, in line with a brand new report of the case.

The person’s traumatic mind harm (TBI) apparently triggered him to develop synesthesia, a uncommon neurological situation that leads to a “mixing” of the senses, his medical doctors wrote within the report. For instance, some folks with synesthesia see sure colours or shapes after they hear specific sounds.

Within the man’s case, listening to music triggered him to see the musical notes in his thoughts as they’d be written on sheet music, which he had by no means skilled earlier than. He additionally gained the flexibility to call the chords inside a tune simply from listening alone. As well as, he reported that his creativity went into overdrive and he felt compelled to compose music late into the evening, in line with the report, which was printed Could 7 within the journal Neurocase (opens in new tab).

Circumstances of individuals growing both synesthesia or heightened creativity following a mind harm have been reported earlier than, however the brand new case is without doubt one of the first to report each phenomena in a single affected person, the case report authors wrote. This implies that comparable neurological pathways could also be concerned within the two situations, they added.

Associated: 10 weird medical case experiences from 2022

“Whereas TBI is often related to ‘unfavorable’ outcomes, through which the sufferers’ operate is impaired, this was a singular case highlighting a ‘constructive’ final result of enhanced creativity and synesthesia,” examine co-author Dr. Lealani Mae Acosta (opens in new tab), an affiliate professor of neurology at Vanderbilt College Medical Middle, instructed Stay Science in an electronic mail.

Nonetheless, the authors cautioned that they do not know for sure if the person’s mind harm straight triggered his synesthesia and heightened creativity and that, if it did, this final result is probably going very uncommon.

The 66-year-old man was educating music following a profession as a musical performer and composer, the report stated. In 2021, he was in a motorbike crash that threw him 30 toes (9 meters) from his automobile. Afterward, he was confused and could not bear in mind the crash. He was taken to the hospital, the place a CT scan confirmed that blood had collected on the floor of his mind — a situation generally known as a subdural hematoma. The bleeding wasn’t extreme sufficient to require surgical therapy, and he was discharged from the hospital after three days.

The person skilled cognitive issues, significantly reminiscence points, on account of his TBI, along with “seeing” notes when he heard stay or recorded music. A web based questionnaire to evaluate synesthesia, generally known as the Synesthesia Battery, confirmed that the affected person certainly had vision-sound synesthesia, through which sounds set off visible imagery, the authors wrote.

After the crash, the person reported experiencing bursts of creativity principally between midnight and 4:00 a.m., throughout which he would compose. He instructed medical doctors “I used to be writing always [. . .]. It was unacceptable for me to not.” These episodes lasted about 4 months, through which time the affected person composed an ensemble piece that he later forgot he’d composed, the report stated. When he and his spouse listened to the piece, they each described it as “fascinating and weird.”

The person’s distinctive signs pale as he recovered from his TBI. Three months after his accident, he additionally reported that his cognitive difficulties had principally gone away, the report stated.

Synesthesia is unusual, occurring in about 1 in 2,000 folks. Most individuals who’ve the situation are born with it, however there have been experiences of people that acquired synesthesia after a mind harm. Equally, there have been instances of individuals changing into extra inventive after experiencing mind harm (opens in new tab).

The case report authors famous that they know of only one different case of synesthesia and heightened creativity occurring collectively following mind harm, through which a lady felt compelled to color after a stroke and skilled adjustments in her neuropathic ache (ache arising from broken nerves) relying on the colours she used, the report authors wrote.

The neural causes of creativity and synesthesia aren’t totally understood, however each might contain novel connections within the mind, the brand new report stated.

One speculation is that inventive pondering is tied to “cognitive disinhibition,” or the concept folks have fewer psychological filters to dam out irrelevant data and this enables them to make novel associations, in line with Psych Central (opens in new tab). In folks with synesthesia, it is doable that cognitive “filters” that will usually forestall a stimulus — a sound — from triggering an unrelated sensation — seeing colours — do not work as properly. The affected person on this case might have skilled a “short-term disinhibition syndrome” on account of his TBI, which drove each his creativity and synesthesia, the report suggests.

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