The Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. Some primitive animals such as jellyfish and starfish have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all. In vertebrates the brain is located in the head, protected by the skull and close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision, hearing, balance, taste, and smell.
Brains can be extremely complex. The cerebral cortex of the human brain contains roughly 15–33 billion neurons, perhaps more, depending on gender and age, linked with up to 10,000 synaptic connections each. Each cubic millimeter of cerebral cortex contains roughly one billion synapses.These neurons communicate with one another by means of long protoplasmic fibers called axons, which carry trains of signal pulses called action potentials to distant parts of the brain or body and target them to specific recipient cells.

Songs/Music which inspires me.

I love to listen to music by Irish artists such as Mumford and Sons, The Script, Aslan etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7bHe--mp1g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DTQsJ6ZaOQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHeiVDSdoCM

A lot of other music inspires me also as I love to Dance therefore a lot of different styles of music is used throughout different ways.

My Opinion

Iv looked at other book covers by Oliver Sacks.

This book "Migraine" is about An investigation of the many manifestations of migraine, including the visual hallucinations and distortions of space, time and body image which migraineurs can experience. I like this cover as it is an illustration which looks hand drawn. I think it shows how it feels to have a migraine. 

In this famous book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" In his most famous book,Sacks presents a variety of neurological case studies from the more extreme end of the spectrum. Thus we are introduced to Christina, who has no sense of her body at all; to Mr Thompson, who reinvents his world every few seconds; to poor Jimmie, stuck forever in 1945; and of course, to Dr P., who is indeed unable to distinguish between his spouse and his headgear. I am not to fond of this cover as I feel it is very plain and a alot more could have been done with it considering the title of the book sounds exciting.

 I really like the cover of this book "The Mind's Eye" as it gives the idea of an eye test chart and blurs out some letters making you feel like you can not read it. This is strangely appropriate, though, because The Mind’s Eye is a personal book.  Although there are four patients through whom we learn about alexia, aphasia, and stereoscopy (Sue, a neurobiologist, has the three-dimensionality of our world revealed to her in her fifties), the main character is Dr. Sacks himself.  We observe his diligent diagnostic procedure and delight in his research tangents; we follow him through his clinical experience and into the swimming pool.   But it is when Dr. Sacks himself becomes the patient that The Mind’s Eye separates itself from its ten sibling books.

Musicophilia by:Oliver Sacks Summary

"Although a teaspoon of Mozart may not make a child a better mathematician, there is little doubt that regular exposure to music, and especially active participation in music, may stimulate development of many different areas of the brain--areas which have to work together to listen to or perform music. For the vast majority of students, music can be every bit as important educationally as reading or writing."

There are several scattered networks in the human brain and no one single music center. Every human has the ability to perceive tones, rhythyms, harmony pitch and timbre. We integrate all of these using many different parts of our brains. Most of this action is mainly unconcious but to this is added intense and profound emotional action to the music. Listening to music is not only emotional but is also muscular as we use our muscles to tap rhythms and to dance. We seem to have a great tenacity for musical memory as what was heard in our early years is retained for a lifetime.

However, this wonderful brain machinery is vulnerable to distortions, excesses and breakdowns. This can occur in a widespread range of cortical problems including Parkinsonism, Alzheimer's, strokes, autism, and other forms of dementia. One example of a debilitating syndrome involving music is musicogenic epilepsy. In these individuals, a certain melody or pitch or tone may trigger a site in the temporal lobe resulting in a seizure. These individuals learn to stay away from any event involving music.

Brain Illustration

I have changed my brain illustration in a lot of ways compared to my last one. This time iv changed the font as it works a lot better and iv taken quotes and sections of quotes from the book itself and placed them throughout the lines of the brain,  such as :

"And suddenly," Llinás concludes, "you hear a song in your head or out of seemingly nowhere find yourself anxious to play tennis. Things sometimes just come to us."

"Many people are set off by the theme music of a film or television show or an advertisement. This is not coincidental, for such music is designed, in the terms of the music industry, to "hook" the listener, to be "catchy" or "sticky," to bore its way, like an earwig, into the ear or mind; hence the term "earworms" -- though one might be inclined to call them "brainworms" instead. (One newsmagazine, in 1987, defined them, half-facetiously, as "cognitively infectious musical agents.")


"Although a teaspoon of Mozart may not make a child a better mathematician, there is little doubt that regular exposure to music, and especially active participation in music, may stimulate development of many different areas of the brain--areas which have to work together to listen to or perform music. For the vast majority of students, music can be every bit as important educationally as reading or writing."

...and plenty more.

Brain Illustration

Iv worked more on my brain in illustrator, iv added text along the outlines of the brain itself. Iv used the sentence '' tales of music and the brain ". I highlighted each outline then used mt text tool to write over the line.

Brain illustration

Iv done up a quick illustration of the brain

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain is a 2007 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks about musichuman brain. The book was released on October 16, 2007 and published by Knopf. 

On October 21, 2007 Sacks spoke with Andrea Seabrook of NPR's All Things Considered about music and its relationship to the human brain.

Four case studies from the book are featured in the NOVA program Musical Minds aired on June 30, 2009.

Music Book Covers

Here are some music book covers.