Succeeded in treating neurological disorders by playing the violin in brain surgery under awakening

In order to investigate the part of the brain that causes neurological diseases, an attempt was made to give weak electrical stimulation to the brain while asking the patient to play the violin by surgery under awakening.

Violinist has brain surgery, fiddles throughout - CNET
http://www.cnet.com/news/violinist-has-brain-surgery-fiddles-throughout/

The state of the surgery actually done can be seen from the following movie.

Violinist Still Making Music After DBS Surgery - Mayo Clinic - YouTube


It was in 2009 that Roger Frisch noticed trembling hands. For Frisch who has made a living as a violinist for over 40 years, trembling hands means "I can not play strings stably," a deadly It was a serious problem. Mr. Frisch, who can not play the violin smoothly, later received a diagnosis from a doctor as a neurological disease.


To solve Frisch's problemMayo ClinicThe nerve engineering laboratory of the institute was to stimulate the deep layer of the brain by surgical operation and to embed pacemaker in the brain.


The following men are Dr. Kendall Lee of Mayo Clinic.


The pacemaker of the brain sends electrical stimulation to a specific part of the brain, and now it is called Parkinson's disease or depressionTourette's injury· It is used to treat tremors · chronic pain etc It is rare for pacemakers to be used to treat tremors, but Mayo Clinic decided to take care of professional violinists taking into account how much tremors would affect them.


It is the electrode that you have in your hands.


In order to identify the part of the brain that is trembling, the electrode was implanted in Mr. Frisch's brain with consciousness in surgery, and weak stimulation was given to various points.


It is not unusual to perform brain surgery on a conscious patient, but the unique point of this surgery is that Mr. Frisch actually performed the violin during surgery.


Doctors monitored Mr. Frisch's brain movement in real time using a 3-axis accelerometer and observed whether the inserted electrodes were affecting tremors.


After the operation, Mr. Frisch succeeded in playing the violin without hand shaking by operating the pacemaker using the controller.


Three weeks later he was a violinist at the Minnesota Orchestra.