His name was Kung Tsu Chen. He was a poet Chinese in 1847 when described a rare but very real phenomenon now known as "epilepsy musicogenic". With the musicogenic epilepsy, the individual is suffering from brain seizures triggered by music, and where appropriate, a very specific type of music. You see, Kung Tsu Chen record that although he did not know why, he get sick when you heard the sound of the flute from a street vendor during the afternoon sun.
Researchers say that this form of epilepsy may occur as a result of many types of music. In the case of our Chinese poet was the trigger melodies apparently flute, but seizures can be triggered by type of music or the type of instrument, the composer, or even the emotional content of the piece. As a matter indeed, in some cases only think in music, regardless of whether you are awake, is sufficient to trigger an epileptic seizure.
Exactly how induce musicogenic episodes is unknown and, unfortunately, due to the way in some cases of epilepsy in the musicogenic world research funds have not been available to study this question directly. It has been suggested, however, that the right temporal lobe of the brain of right auditory cortex, contains a number of modules which specialize in music processing. If so, the theory suggests, then musicogenic epilepsy is evidence of a malfunction of this part of the brain.
Fortunately, this is not the end of the story. Music has also been found to also have a profoundly positive effect on people with epilepsy. A research study even found that when epileptic patients are treated with music therapy, as well as conventional epileptic drugs up to eighty percent of patients had seizure frequency reduced in 1970s and five percent! Similarly, the eighty per cent of epileptic patients experienced at least a certain reduction in the intensity of seizure.
The reason for this, it has been suggested, can be found in the fact that the brain has no single music processing center. On the other hand, areas of the brain that process music are very scattered throughout the brain. Thus, when the brain is subject to the music that is very structured, as Mozart's Sonata for two piano, the brain process is actually help. Unfortunately, the implication is that the reverse is also true, certain types of music could, in theory, make it more difficult for a brain that is struggling to work in the first place if there is a confrontation in this weak point.
So does this mean that we avoid the music? Unless you have epilepsy musicogenic the answer is no. As a matter of fact, studies have shown that patients with other types of epilepsy can actually be benefited by listening to music! As a matter of fact, in one of these studies, the researchers found that epileptic attacks dropped significantly in more than seventy-nine percent of the cases when Mozart's Sonata for two piano was being played in the room where the patient was.
I know, the music is not yet used as a formal treatment for epilepsy, but the simple fact that music has demonstrated a potential to be a treatment for epilepsy, as well as its ability to induce seizures which seems to indicate that music could only play a more important role in human experience which we imagine.