Banjo Used In Brain Surgery

Ponca City, We love you writes "Legendary bluegrass musician Eddie Adcock has undergone brain surgery to treat a hand tremor, playing his banjo throughout to test the success of the procedure. Adcock suffers from essential tremor, a condition where there is a continuing deterioration in areas of the brain that control movement, causing a tremor that usually appears when the person tries to act or move. Deep brain stimulation can be used to treat the movement difficulties of both Parkinson's and essential tremor by sinking an electrode into the thalamus, a deep brain area that is part of the motor loop — a circuit that helps coordinate movement. Surgeons placed electrodes in Adcock's brain and fitted a pacemaker in his chest, which delivers a small current that shuts down the region of his brain causing the tremors. The most sensible thing to do was to tweak the system while Adcock was playing the banjo to optimize the effect for the thing that's most important to him."

Comments

Just needed a PA on the guitar...

[Zymergy]

...for this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyKvD-4IxOY
(Now imagine the brain surgeon trying to work with that going on...)

It could have been worse

[CRCulver]

Oliver Sacks has anecdotes in his book Musicophilia about patients that have lost all interest in music, or even consider it irksome noise. Things could have been worse after brain surgery than just losing the ability to play the banjo. It's crazy to think how malleable our interest in or capability for music could be.

Music appreciation?

[houstonbofh]

I was told that to really appreciate music, you have to get inside the head of the musician. This wins...

Re:Tag?

[Kid Zero]

Yes, they're that immature.

Title

[internerdj]

Did anyone else find the title more interesting without reading the summary?

I guess...

[Box Checker]

...this means when i have the surgery i will be enjoying some self loving, in the form of hand pleasure. "The most sensible thing to do was to tweak the system while Adcock was playing the banjo to optimize the effect for the thing that's most important to him.""

Re:I guess...

[stormguard2099]

where's the -1 too informative mod?

Hmmm.

[SatanicPuppy]

Actually this isn't that unusual. In nerosurguries where the goal is not to correct some gross defect (e.g. cancer, stroke, railroad spike in a frontal lobe) the subject is often kept awake while the surgeon uses a probe to see if they can stimulate the neurological event that they're trying to surpress. I've seen it mostly with things like epilepsy, but I've been following the deep brain stim research, and it seems completely logical that they'd use the same methodology for that procedure.

That being said, watching a video (oh yes, there are videos) of someone with a big chunk out of the top of their head chattering away while a bunch of surgeons stand around behind them, poking at their brain...Lot of times the stimulation will create neurological artifacts...Memories, smells, lights...It's truly bizarre to watch. Not for the weak of stomach. //Former cognitive science major. Didn't much care for neuroanatomy.

Re:I heard this on the stupid radio yesterday

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure thing. Here's your money back, asswipe.

Oblig Banjo Jokes

[ShakaUVM]

Q: What's the difference between a banjo and a trampoline?
A: People take off their shoes before jumping on a trampoline.

Q: Ever hear someone say, "Hey, there's that mansion where that famous banjo player lives?"
A: No, and you never will

Re:Oblig Banjo Jokes

[rk]

I once took my banjo with me to the bad part of town. I ran into a store for just a minute to buy a soda, leaving the banjo in the car. Wouldn't you know it? When I came back someone smashed my window had put another banjo right next to it.

Re:Oblig Banjo Jokes

[Mex]

A banjo player wins the lottery. The newspaper asks: "What will you do now that you are a rich man?"

The banjo player replies: "Well, I guess I'll keep on gigging until the money runs out..."

Re:Oblig Banjo Jokes

[rubycodez]

Guy walks into a bar with an octopus, tells the bartender, "hey, hire me, my talking octopus will bring in customers!". Bartender says, "big deal, talking animals, we've had talking horses, dogs, fish, birds...get out of here with your stupid octopus." Guy says, "but wait, my octopus can play any instrument like a virtuoso". Bar tender points to piano, says "let's see him do something on the keyboard." Octopus goes over to piano, starts playing with eight arms, sounds like four concert pianists jamming. Bar tender yells over to live band, to bring over a guitar. Octopus plays incredible music, sounds like three guitar masters playing. Bartender says, give him a trumpet, octopus plays jazz with blinding fury over six octave range. Scotsman over in the corner says "'old on just a minute, let's us see 'im do somethin' wi' me bagpipes". Scotsman hands over his pipes to the octopus. Octopus coils and flops and grabs all over the bagpipes, nothing coming out but occasional off key honks and burps and toots. Bartender says "haha, look at him flounder, he doesn't know how to play those". Octopus looks up from his struggles and says "play it?, as soon as I figure out how to get its pajamas off, I'm gonna fuck it!"

Re:Oblig Banjo Jokes

[Big Nothing]

"Legendary Blue Grass musician Eddie Adcock has undergone brain surgery to treat a hand tremor, playing his banjo throughout to test the success of the procedure."

Unfortunately, the procedure was a failure - he can still play the banjo...

Slashdotting

[Tablizer]

I am currently trolling on slashdot to test the success of my brain surgery. So far everything is just fi ~2 ,'`~ s asb a77777777777

Incredible

[symes]

I find this both increible and humbling at the same time... incredible because of the patient's bravery and the surgeons ability to get in there and treat his condition. But humbling because it seems like a car engineer repeatedly reving an engine when trying to work out where some squeek or somesuch is coming from. Perhaps one day we'll have scanners that can analyse brain function and guide tiny little robots to make repairs - rather than cut the top of someone's head off while they play the bango.

Re:Incredible

[cbnewman]

As a neurosurgeon, I have been involved in procedures like this (although not with a banjo player). To evaluate the efficacy of the tremor suppression, we frequently ask the patient to sip a glass of water.

The analogy of a surgeon as a glorified human body mechanic has been used on me in the past, too. I will accept the comparison with the following conditions:

Next time you take your car in, tell your mechanic that
1. You only plan on having one car for the rest of your life and
2. When they work on your car, they have to leave the engine running.

Re:Tag?

[ROMRIX]

Is the slashdot crowd really this immature?

I just hope no one from Slashdot forum has to undergo such a procedure as Adcock did. They might allow you to play with your banjo in the operating room but with their hobbies tending towards masturbation and all... Well you get the idea..

-*ZIP ZIP ZAP!*- "Giggidy Giggidy! Right there doc! Hold whatcha got!"

What's Next....

[polyomninym]

Dueling Brain-Stems??? Gotta love it! Anyone for "Devil Went Down to Thalamus"? Ok, I'll stop here.

Well I guess...

[R3PUBLIC0N]

I guess in this case, the banjo tuned him.