Can the power of music make the brain come alive? Throughout his career Dr. Oliver Sacks, neurologist and acclaimed author, whose book "Awakenings" was made into a Oscar-nominated feature film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, has encountered myriad patients who are struggling to cope with debilitating medical conditions.
While their ailments vary, many have one thing in common: an appreciation for the therapeutic effects of music. "NOVA: Musical Minds" follows four individuals—two of whom are Sacks's case studies—and even peers into Sacks's own brain, to investigate music's strange, surprising, and still unexplained power over the human mind.
Finally, can music aid people battling severe neurological disorders? To find out, NOVA follows the BBC's Alan Yentob on an intercontinental quest—from New York to England and Ireland—to meet individuals like those chronicled in "Musicophilia," bringing Sacks's latest work to life through their intimate and phenomenal stories.
Three of the four case studies cope with neurological disorders: Tourette's syndrome, autism, and amusia, the musical equivalent of color-blindness, which results in deafness to certain elements of music. The last subject is a surgeon and rock 'n' roll lover who, after being struck by lightning, became obsessed with playing classical piano. Three of the four—all but the patient with amusia—have somehow, almost magically, unlocked a part of their minds to develop musical talents that were otherwise unimaginable.
