Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for January 23, 2008 WEIRD SCIENCE

Warning from the Surgeon General...Rap Music May Cause Seizures?

Definitely a bum rap!

Gotta have part of your brain cut out in order to listen to rap music?!

Things that make you go "Hmmmmm..."

Rap Music May Have Caused Seizure

TO YOUR HEALTH--It's a very rare disorder, maybe five or six cases in the country: Epileptic seizures triggered by music. It's called musicogenic epilepsy. In this fascinating case today, a young woman in Queens suddenly began having epileptic seizures. The stimulus? A rap song.

What the Sean Paul song turned on in Stacey Gayle's brain is a rare-occurring mystery.

Stacey says, "They started out slow and then four times a week maybe more. We didn't know at first what was triggering the seizures until we found out that it was Sean Paul." The connection came when Stacey noticed the song had been playing before she had two of the seizures.

Later and after dozens of unsuccessful brain scans, doctors were able to induce the seizures and diagnose the type of epilepsy by playing the Sean Paul song during a special PET scan.

Dr. Alan Ettinger of Long Island Jewish Medical Center says, "The fact that they were provoked by melody is unusual, and why we needed to use a diagnostic technique to figure out what was going on."

At the hospital this morning, the doctors explained that the problem was not with the song but with the brain. Dr. Ashesh Mehta says, "The pattern that music creates may set up a pattern of activity in the brain that may cause seizure."

Last fall, it took two surgeries to find the tiny spot in the brain with the problem and cut it out. Stacey is now seizure free. What does she say about Sean Paul's music?

"I think his music is awesome, actually," she said. This was especially hard on Stacey as she is a hard-core music lover and a member of her church choir. The seizures eventually were also brought on by other kinds of Reggae music. Chances are very good that the seizures may never return but she remains on medication.