Pat Martino or how the practice of music can stimulate neuroplasticity | Echosciences

&#13. Therefore, The story of Pat Martino (1944-2021) is that of a jazz prodigy, but also an incredible fight against amnesia. Moreover, Virtuoso guitarist, he brutally lost his memory after a brain operation in 1980, forgetting until his own name and music. However. Furthermore, thanks to the tenacity of his father and the plasticity of his brain, he relearn everything: his memories, his songs, and even his art of improvisation. Nevertheless, His return to stage, a few years later, fascinates music lovers as much as neuroscientists. However, How can a musician find his genius after such a brain injury? Furthermore, Between resilience. Moreover, neuroplasticity, the Martino case remains a source of inspiration for creativity neurosciences but also for the development of re-education programs after a brain injury.

Martino project – Episode 2

Patrick Carmen Azzara, better known by his stage name of Pat Martino (1944-2021), was one of the great guitarists and jazz composers of this beginning of the century. Moreover, Born in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, he dreams of learning the trumpet, but his father advises him not on this instrument for fear that it damages his lips and that the girls do not want him … However, He therefore learns the guitar (much more effective!) At the age of 12, quickly discovers jazz and improvisation, stops school and becomes a professional musician at 17. Similarly, He plays with the great jazzmen of the 60s and stands out for his creativity and his very personal style. In addition,

In 1976. In addition, when he already recorded several albums of his compositions with some big names in jazz, he began pat martino how practice music to suffer from frequent headache, but also from partial epilepsy attacks associated with emotional and hallucinatory symptoms. Therefore, He also presents a bipolar disorder with violent depression crises which lead him to make several suicide attempts. Consequently, It is treated with antiepileptic drugs of the time but also by electroshocs. However,

In 1980. For example, when he stayed in Los Angeles and his latest album bears a premonitory title (Exit) (1), he is the victim of a more serious epilepsy crisis than the others which forces him to be hospitalized. Therefore, For the first time. However, it benefits from brain imaging which highlights a complex malformation of the blood vessels (aneurysm) at the level of its left temporal lobe. Therefore, Neurologists advise him to have an emergency operated because no medication is effective against his epilepsy attacks (this is always the case in our time when almost 30% pat martino how practice music of epileptic patients remain “orphans” of an effective drug) and. Therefore, above all, he risks dying of cerebral hemorrhage. Consequently, A first operation makes it possible to evacuate a hematoma. Furthermore, during the second operation Frederick Simeone, the neurosurgeon of the University Hospital in Philadelphia, withdraws almost 70% of this famous temporal lobe, seat of essential structures for different forms of memory. However,

When you wake up, disaster! Consequently, Pat Martino no longer knows who he is, no longer recognizes his parents, nor his loved ones and … For example, no longer knows how to play the guitar! Similarly, Retrograde amnesia is one of the risks of this kind of operation. In addition, even if, nowadays, the delimitation of the epileptic hearth is more precise thanks to the evolution of imaging techniques pat martino how practice music and the intracranial electroencephalographic recordings. By “luck”, he does not present any engine disorder: he can move, feed, move normally, use his ten fingers …

But his father does not give up and it is he who will take care of his son’s rehabilitation. Using photos, meetings with musicians and friends, and especially listening to his old compositions, Pat Martino gradually regains his memory. With the help of a computer program on a computer. he even learns to write music, he who played in the ear before. To please his father (sic) and avoid thinking about his health problems, he re-learned the guitar, then slowly recoveries … After two years, Pat Martino has found his musical capacities and replayed again with talent. He goes back on stage, and in 1987 released a new album entitled ” the return (2) (obviously!). He then resumed a brilliant career with another pat martino how practice music twenty albums. an approach to very original improvisation which inspired many jazz guitarists. He was rewarded with numerous prizes. in 2004, he is devoted best jazz guitarist of the year by readers of the newspaper DownBeat. He stopped his career in 2018 due to a respiratory problem and died in 2021.

Several years after his operation (2007). the team of neurologists and neurosurgeons from the Philadelphia hospital who had operated Pat Martino, sought to understand how he could not only find his ability to play the guitar but also to compose and improvise despite the important lesion caused by surgical resection (3). Indeed. several works in neuroscience have suggested in recent years that musicians have had greater connections between their two hemispheres and could thus recover better after a lesion or a stroke (stroke). With his agreement. they therefore compared the MRI images of his brain with those pat martino how practice music of 5 healthy subjects of the same age. They were able to verify that the surgery had removed regions adjacent to the hippocampal. the left amygdal, but also from the lower temporal cortex. The volume of the left hippocampus was much lower than that of its right hippocampus and those of control subjects. On the other hand. surgical resection had spared the Fornix, the mammilary bodies and the thalamus (sorry for this neuroanatomist language, but these names have when a sacred poetry!). These regions are the place of projection of the hippocampus, which suggests that it could still work after the operation.

A few months after the MRI, the team brought him neuropsychological tests. Pat Martino had trouble recognizing and appointing several current objects presented to him and had memories of memories in general. He also had trouble retaining certain oral information in particular for concepts little used pat martino how practice music in everyday life. Despite everything, he could hold a common conversation without problem. Pat Martino thus had rather moderate cognitive disorders, taking into account the brain structures that surgery had removed in 1980.

MRI of Pat Martino’s brain made 27 years after his operation. Right (MRI images are reversed), the cavity left by the resection of the left temporal lobe in 1980.

How could Pat Martino find memory and especially his musical and creative skills? One of the hypotheses suggests that the aneurysm in its left temporal lobe should have been present since its birth. has increased slowly and progressively. According to study authors. this region of the brain operating abnormally has caused plasticity involving its contralateral counterpart leading to a very significant reorganization of the nervous circuits involved in the skills of the musician. Other studies have shown that patients pat martino how practice music operated with an aneurysm generally recover better and faster when it gradually formed (4). Unfortunately. no study with MRI and neuropsychological test had not been carried out within two years that followed the operation, which would have dissociated the effects of neuroplasticity before and after the operation. Only his testimony can provide clues. His musical style has not changed after the operation. but as he says in an interview, his memories of memories allowed him to be in the present time and play the music that makes sense for him and no longer to please others or show them that he is the best.

Here. now: interview with Pat Martino in 2015 (in English)

Professor Hugues Duffau, neurosurgeon in Montpellier, specialist in neuroplasticity associated with the development of brain and musician tumors, commented the article of the Philadelphia team on the “case” Martino (5). This specialist pat martino how practice music in awakened surgery. author of the book “The error of Broca” (6) suggests that a significant neuroplasticity both in the brain area which has been affected by surgery, but also in neighboring regions and finally in the contralateral temporal lobe allowed Pat Martino to find its musical skills. It is very possible that this questioning of neighboring. distant regions was done before surgery in this musician because of his early beginnings as a professional, with undoubtedly many hours to play jazz and improvise. The examination of the MRI images carried out by the Philadelphia team shows that certain nerve pathways have been spared by surgery. in particular that of the inferior fronto-occipital booklet involved in the “noetic” consciousness, which allows in particular self-awareness, involved in semantic memory. This path also seems to be involved in musical improvisation as suggested by Charles Limb’s work in San Francisco. (next episode!). In addition pat martino how practice music to a better knowledge of the circuits involved in musical improvisation. the remarkable history of Pat Martino makes it possible to envisage functional restoration programs adapted after a stroke or the resection of a tumor, an aneurysm or an epileptic home.

Are you a musician and you improvise? Do not hesitate to answer the Martino project questionnaire on brain and musical improvisation!

https://www.survio.com/survey/…

And to find out more about the Martino project, click ici And follow the next episodes!

References

1. ExitMuse Label, 1977: Pat Martino (guitar), Gil Goldstein (Piano), Richard Davis (double bass), Jabali Billy Hart (drums). https: //www.youtube.com/watch? …
2. The returnMuse Label, 1987, Pat Martino (guitar), Steve Laspina (double bass), Joey Baron (drums)
3. Galarza, M., Isaac, C., Pellicer, O., Mayes, A., Broks, P., Montaldi, D., Denby, C., & Simeone, F. Additionally, (2014). Jazz, Guitar, and Neurosurgery: The Pat pat martino how practice music Martino Case Report. World Neurosurgery, 81(3–4), 651. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2013.09.042

1. Duffau, H. (2005). Lessons from brain mapping in surgery for low-grade glioma: insights into associations between tumour and brain plasticity. Lancet Neurol., 4(476-48). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(05)70140-X

1. Duffau, H. (2014). Jazz Improvisation, Creativity, and Brain Plasticity. World Neurosurgery, 81(3–4), 508–510. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2013.10.006
2. Duffau H, Duchatelet, CH, Broca’s error, (2016) Exploration of an awakened brain, Michel Lafon (ED), 281 pages.