As the 19-year-old musician Kira learned Iaconetti of her brain tumor, she called him “a bad joke of the universe”. Because the marble-sized ulcer pressed exactly to your auditory Cortex, those of the brain region used to process sounds and therefore are particularly active, if you’re listening to music or singing.
After all, the young American had a diagnosis, an explanation for the dropouts, which overtook them more and more often, when she practiced for her performances as a musical actress. “It was then as if a switch had been flipped in my brain,” says Iaconetti. “Suddenly, I could distinguish no sounds and it was not possible to me to sing to match the music.”
Her Doctors, the Children at Seattle children’s Hospital found the Tumor in Iaconetti to an unusual Form of epilepsy – the so-called musikogenen epilepsy. On the Website of the hospital the neurosurgeon Jason Hauptman explains that the epileptic seizures are going to hear in this case, through music and Singing is triggered.
MRI scan of Kira Iaconettis the brain. The green arrow shows the location of the tumor. On the right of the image, those regions are marked in yellow, which are activated when the patient is singing.
Awake and singing by the brain SURGERY
The Doctors were now faced with a tricky task: to free their young patient of epilepsy that threatens her career as a musician, you had to remove the Tumor. The risk of hurting the surrounding tissue of the auditory Cortex and affect so also Iaconettis musical Talent.
Therefore, Hauptman and his colleagues considered an unusual procedure: During the brain surgery, the patient should remain awake and sing. In this way, the neuro surgeon wanted to identify the exact regions that he has to deal with the removal of the tumor.
After the doctor had opened her skull, was Iaconetti awakened from the anesthesia. In turn, they completed a series of musical tasks they had practiced previously with a music therapist. You were, for example, plays sounds, you should sing then. In addition, she sang the chorus of one of their favorite songs, the Hit “Islands in the Sun” by the American rock band Weezer. In the States at one point “I can’t control my brain” – “I can’t control my brain”.
In the Video, which released the hospital from the surgery to see how all the Doctors, nurses and sisters in the OP in the vocal tune, and swaying to the beat. The good mood was quite appropriate: Iaconetti has survived the Operation without any problems. 48 hours later, she reached into her hospital bed to the guitar and to sing once again their favourite song: “We’ll never feel bad anymore” – “for Us, it will never go bad.” Neuro surgeon Hauptman from, you will have no further treatment is necessary.
Awake surgeries are not uncommon
Brain surgery is performed frequently anesthesia without. Most of the patients to complete during the language tasks, to ensure that the procedure is no important brain functions are destroyed. Pain you feel as good as any, because the brain itself is completely insensitive to pain.
In 2015, the Slovenian Tenor, Ambroz Bajec-Lapajne on YouTube published a Video of his brain surgery in the Dutch city of Utrecht. He was also awake and tell the song, “Good night,” by Franz Schubert.
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