Back in 1997, over 700 school children were rushed to emergency rooms across Japan with seizures after watching an episode of Pokemon (even more children were affected when the inciting clip was replayed on the evening news).

In all, supposedly over 12,000 children became ill (many with milder symptoms).

How could a cartoon do this?

It turns out that certain frequencies and colors of flashing lights can induce seizures in people who already have epilepsy (i.e., a tendency to have seizures)

• A seizure is an "arrhythmia" of the brain; a storm of abnormal electrical activity flowing through neurons

‘Babel’ Sickness

According to several news sources, this phenomenon has reared its head again in Japan with the film Babel (great movie, by the way).

Numerous people became sick after watching the scene involving Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi dancing in a club with flashing strobe lights.

Interestingly, this sort of thing is intentionally performed as a provocative maneuver whenever a patient undergoes testing for seizures with an EEG (electroencephalogram). A small portion of the test involves ‘photic stimulation’ with a bright flickering light.

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One of the most common reasons patients get upset with neurologists is when we tell them they should no longer drive. Most older folks are very independent, and when you take their car away from them, they are not happy. In fact, many become belligerent and act as if you’re personally out to get them.

The most common reasons for prohibiting driving include seizures, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia.

What is dementia? It is very broad term that encompasses all the hundreds of things that can lead to poor brain function. In addition to impairing memory and overall cognitive ability, dementia greatly diminishes reflexes and reaction time, visual-spatial processing, as well as hand-eye-leg coordination. And it is very common.

How common? It’s estimated that 5-10% of the population aged 65 years or older has it. My guess is that amounts to millions upon millions of unfit drivers.The scary thing, however, is that no one is doing anything about it.

The laws are incredibly strict when it comes to punishing and taking away licenses of people who get DUIs (driving under the influence of alcohol). And rightly so, of course. We don’t want them killing us or our children.
But what about the tens of millions of drivers over 65 that are demented? I believe they also represent a major road hazard, and need to have their licenses pulled.

Came across an article on physorg.com that recently notes:

Researchers at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere have developed a three-hour workshop that trains health care providers to identify potentially unsafe drivers with dementia and to encourage appropriate retirement from driving.

This is all well and good, but the vast majority of primary care physicians are too busy taking care of medical issues to have to worry about this sort of thing, and many are not expert enough in neurological assessment to determine when “appropriate retirement from driving” should take place.

If a state can make laws prohibiting cell phone use while driving, why can’t they make laws subjecting everyone over 65 to another driving test?

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Does listening to Mozart make you smarter? According to a landmark neuroscience research study out of the University of California, Mozart’s sonata for two pianos K448 (which you can listen to below) can indeed increase your spatial-temporal IQ scores by 9 points. While the duration of the effect on your brain is only about 10-15 minutes, the findings are nonetheless fascinating.

• Spatial-temporal intelligence allows you to perform 3-D type manipulations on a mental image. It’s thought to be important for problems that arise in areas such as “mathematics, engineering, architecture, science, art, games (e.g. chess) and everyday life”. (ref: wikipedia)

This original study, published by Rauscher in the journal Nature, has given birth to what is now known as ‘The Mozart Effect‘. While many people have used the research to peddle exaggerated claims and products (like Mozart music tapes for parents to play in their child’s nursery), I think there is clearly something noteworthy going on with this type of music and the brain.

For example, further research shows that K448:

• Significantly increases the speed & ability of rats navigating through mazes
• Strikingly diminishes the number of seizures in patients with epilepsy

What is so special about K448? How might it power up your brain? According to one Mozart authority, K448 is “one of the most profound and most mature of all Mozart’s compositions”.

A more scientific explanation, however, may have been uncovered by the work of Neurology Professor John Hughes. As he comments in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine:

…we have found a long-lasting periodicity in the power of Mozart’s music, seen also with JS Bach and his son JC Bach. Furthermore we have just analyzed the melodic line and find that Mozart repeats his melodic line far more frequently than other well-known composers, but often in an ingenious manner reversing the notes. We feel that periodicity is the key or secret here and characterizes many brain and bodily functions.

In other words, Mozart’s K448 is characterized by a high degree of long-term periodicity. The music cycles, with elements recurring at regular intervals.

While I do think that certain types of music can have interesting and significant effects on brain function, I do not believe merely listening to Mozart can drive long term gains in brain power. (And if you look at the findings of the original ‘Mozart Effect’ research paper, the authors never claimed such).

If you are looking to utilize music as a way to boost brain function long-term, the path you’ll need to pursue is learning how to play an instrument. Here the research shows convincing and significant benefits, and I refer you to this great webpage that summarizes them. [As to the possible mechanism by which music instruction improves brain power, you may enjoy reading one of the first posts I made on the Smartkit website here].

If you’d like to read more about Mozart K448 and its varied effects on the brain, I recommend this excellent summary article by Dr. J S Jenkins, which can be found here.

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