Banjo Used In Brain Surgery 164
Ponca City, We love you writes "Legendary bluegrass musician Eddie Adcock has undergone brain surgery to treat a hand tremor, playing his banjo throughout to test the success of the procedure. Adcock suffers from essential tremor, a condition where there is a continuing deterioration in areas of the brain that control movement, causing a tremor that usually appears when the person tries to act or move. Deep brain stimulation can be used to treat the movement difficulties of both Parkinson's and essential tremor by sinking an electrode into the thalamus, a deep brain area that is part of the motor loop — a circuit that helps coordinate movement. Surgeons placed electrodes in Adcock's brain and fitted a pacemaker in his chest, which delivers a small current that shuts down the region of his brain causing the tremors. The most sensible thing to do was to tweak the system while Adcock was playing the banjo to optimize the effect for the thing that's most important to him."
Just needed a PA on the guitar... (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyKvD-4IxOY [youtube.com]
(Now imagine the brain surgeon trying to work with that going on...)
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Before I went to all that trouble,
I'd rather just go shopping for a coffin, get my affairs in order, and accept the inevitable. You can't live forever; now is as good a day to die as any.
Oblig Banjo Jokes (Score:5, Funny)
Q: What's the difference between a banjo and a trampoline?
A: People take off their shoes before jumping on a trampoline.
Q: Ever hear someone say, "Hey, there's that mansion where that famous banjo player lives?"
A: No, and you never will
Re:Oblig Banjo Jokes (Score:4, Informative)
Q: Ever hear someone say, "Hey, there's that mansion where that famous banjo player lives?"
A: No, and you never will
What, never hear of Hee Haw? This guy [royclark.org] was pickin' and grinnin' all the way to the bank... in one of the airplanes he owns...
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Yep, there's a lot of poor unenlightened folk who'll never know they joy listening to a banjo player because their blind bias stops 'em from even trying.
Fine with me, keeps the crowds down and the company pleasant.
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Both my aunt and dad play the banjo, and I learned to play it back in the day for a high school project.
Sheesh, have a sense of humor.
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Ha ha, take that, stupid banjo players. Now BAGPIPES, that's where it's at!
For some reason though, everyone who has attempted to play bagpipes while undergoing this type of procedure has died due to mysterious brain injuries.
Re:Oblig Banjo Jokes (Score:5, Funny)
Guy walks into a bar with an octopus, tells the bartender, "hey, hire me, my talking octopus will bring in customers!". Bartender says, "big deal, talking animals, we've had talking horses, dogs, fish, birds...get out of here with your stupid octopus." Guy says, "but wait, my octopus can play any instrument like a virtuoso". Bar tender points to piano, says "let's see him do something on the keyboard." Octopus goes over to piano, starts playing with eight arms, sounds like four concert pianists jamming. Bar tender yells over to live band, to bring over a guitar. Octopus plays incredible music, sounds like three guitar masters playing. Bartender says, give him a trumpet, octopus plays jazz with blinding fury over six octave range. Scotsman over in the corner says "'old on just a minute, let's us see 'im do somethin' wi' me bagpipes". Scotsman hands over his pipes to the octopus. Octopus coils and flops and grabs all over the bagpipes, nothing coming out but occasional off key honks and burps and toots. Bartender says "haha, look at him flounder, he doesn't know how to play those". Octopus looks up from his struggles and says "play it?, as soon as I figure out how to get its pajamas off, I'm gonna fuck it!"
Re:Oblig Banjo Jokes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oblig Banjo Jokes (Score:4, Funny)
A: There are no dental records and the DNA is all the same.
Re:Oblig Banjo Jokes (Score:5, Funny)
A banjo player wins the lottery. The newspaper asks: "What will you do now that you are a rich man?"
The banjo player replies: "Well, I guess I'll keep on gigging until the money runs out..."
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I'm pretty sure Steve Martin lives in a mansion...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrlqQ1_vZVE [youtube.com]
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Some biochemists were hanging out at the bar after a big pharmaceutical convention. One was telling a group at a table, "Did you know that in our laboratory we have switched from rats to
banjo players for our drug trials?" Another at the table said, "That's interesting, what's the reason for the change?" "Well, there are three main benefits. First off, we found that banjo players are far more plentiful; second, the lab assistants don't get so attached to them; and third, there are some things even a rat
Re:Oblig Banjo Jokes (Score:5, Funny)
"Legendary Blue Grass musician Eddie Adcock has undergone brain surgery to treat a hand tremor, playing his banjo throughout to test the success of the procedure."
Unfortunately, the procedure was a failure - he can still play the banjo...
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Jerry Garcia springs to mind as the most successful banjo player in modern times. As a trivial matter I have picked at a banjo but I'd not call myself skilled at it really as I have no formal training but they're fun to pick at.
Then again, a hammered dulcimer and mandolin are also a lot of fun but both of those require pretty much no skill at all.
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A: He drools out of both sides of his mouth.
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Holy aspect distortion!
Shit like that makes me hate things like youtube.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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>> or even consider it irksome noise
On the other hand, if the feeling is specific to banjo noise, the individual is considered normal.
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Have you listened to the radio lately? I'm in that boat without the brain surgery.
Music appreciation? (Score:5, Funny)
obvious (Score:2, Funny)
Title (Score:5, Interesting)
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Who reads the summaries?
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Getaway drivers of the world... (Score:2)
no, the word was "Bird" (Score:2)
I guess... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I guess... (Score:5, Funny)
where's the -1 too informative mod?
in related news (Score:4, Funny)
the bariatric surgery retractor and the spinal pedicle screw have successfully been used to perform "I am a Man of Constant Sorrow" by the Soggy Bottom Boys
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Well, if the only thing he knows to do afterward was play the banjo, that will make him a man of constant sorrow.
Ignorance is bliss (Score:2)
Hmmm. (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually this isn't that unusual. In nerosurguries where the goal is not to correct some gross defect (e.g. cancer, stroke, railroad spike in a frontal lobe) the subject is often kept awake while the surgeon uses a probe to see if they can stimulate the neurological event that they're trying to surpress. I've seen it mostly with things like epilepsy, but I've been following the deep brain stim research, and it seems completely logical that they'd use the same methodology for that procedure.
That being said, watching a video (oh yes, there are videos) of someone with a big chunk out of the top of their head chattering away while a bunch of surgeons stand around behind them, poking at their brain...Lot of times the stimulation will create neurological artifacts...Memories, smells, lights...It's truly bizarre to watch. Not for the weak of stomach. //Former cognitive science major. Didn't much care for neuroanatomy.
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Agreed, I remember when one of the Hannibal Lecter movies which spurred some discussion on this. It was the movie that featured the scene of a man with the top of his head removed, fully conscious, and having his brain sliced up by the cannibal, who cooked it and subsequently fed it back to the (lobotomized?) man.
It seems like most people balked at the idea of this being possible, but it seems it definitely is (or at least more plausible than some would think).
I watched a couple videos of brain surgery out
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Easy enough to secure the patient. And often stimulating seizures helps the neurosurgeon what to cut in order the prevent further seizures. Wilder Penfield, who pioneered this kind of surgery, has a really graphic description of such an operation in his autobiography.
Hmmm. *BOING!* (Score:2)
"That being said, watching a video (oh yes, there are videos) of someone with a big chunk out of the top of their head chattering away while a bunch of surgeons stand around behind them, poking at their brain...Lot of times the stimulation will create neurological artifacts...Memories, smells, lights...It's truly bizarre to watch. Not for the weak of stomach. //Former cognitive science major. Didn't much care for neuroanatomy."
But it would have been more interesting if they had been poking this [wikipedia.org] brain.
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I've seen this done quite a few times during stereotaxic surgery for Parkinson's disease by the late Dr. Hirotaro Narabayashi in Tokyo. This involved destruction of cells in the ventro-lateral nucleus of the thalamus. A stereotaxic apparatus is used in combination with X-ray and listening to the output of a recording electrode to drive an electrode into the correct location. When that location is found, the drive is locked and the recording electrode replaced by an RF power electrode. The patient remains a
Q: if you drop a banjo and an accordion (Score:2, Funny)
off a skyscraper, which one hits the ground first?
A. Who cares?
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Q. What's the range of a banjo?
A. About 15 yards with a good arm.
Q. What's the difference between a banjo player and a frog?
A. The frog might get a gig one day.
A musician goes to the police station and, clearly distressed, says "Officer, I left a banjo on the back seat of my car and the window was open." The officer says "Do you want to report a theft?". Musician says "No, you don't understand - Now I have two banjos!"
s/banjo/bagpipe/
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A: When you toss a banjo into a dumpster and it lands on an accordion.
Steve Martin? (Score:1)
There's gotta be a Steve Martin joke in here somewhere.
Need this for my wife. (Score:1, Funny)
They could insert an electrode to stop the part of her brain that makes her talk. She'd definitely be talking through the entire procedure, so they'd have incentive to get it done right quick.
Slashdotting (Score:5, Funny)
I am currently trolling on slashdot to test the success of my brain surgery. So far everything is just fi ~2 ,'`~ s asb a77777777777
Re:Slashdotting (Score:4, Funny)
Incredible (Score:5, Insightful)
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When you put it like that, it does sound primitive, like medieval bloodletting.
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But humbling because it seems like a car engineer repeatedly reving an engine when trying to work out where some squeek or somesuch is coming from.
I was working on an engine that wouldn't start once, and I asked one of my bosses for a pointer. He said, basically, "whack the starter with a hammer. If it starts after that, or even sounds moderately different, it's a bad starter."
I whacked it with a hammer. It started. The starter was bad.
Re:Incredible (Score:5, Interesting)
As a neurosurgeon, I have been involved in procedures like this (although not with a banjo player). To evaluate the efficacy of the tremor suppression, we frequently ask the patient to sip a glass of water.
The analogy of a surgeon as a glorified human body mechanic has been used on me in the past, too. I will accept the comparison with the following conditions:
Next time you take your car in, tell your mechanic that
1. You only plan on having one car for the rest of your life and
2. When they work on your car, they have to leave the engine running.
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Banjo Brain Surgery (Score:2)
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I can take a brain surgery with a banjo or guitar (Score:2)
... if this is a pretty blonde girl from Minnesota or Wisconsin doing this on me. Sign me up.
Cmon slashdot editors (Score:1)
The title should read "Bango used DURING surgery" not "Bango used IN surgery"
What's Next.... (Score:5, Funny)
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Taking a slightly different tack, how about "Pickin' your brain"?
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Which state did that result in?
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You generally don't get pregnant from oral sex. Generally.
It's a good thing he isn't (Score:2)
an accordion player. Else there might've been an "accident".
and... (Score:2)
Dr House in the house? (Score:1)
Law of unintended consequences (Score:1, Funny)
The most sensible thing to do was to tweak the system while Adcock was playing the banjo to optimize the effect for the thing that's most important to him.
HA! Yeah, until he discovers his penis no longer works!
Well I guess... (Score:5, Funny)
Gah! You're doin' it wrong! (Score:2)
This is perfekt opportunity for "In Sowjet Russia..." joke!
Banjo used in brain surgery? That's not news (Score:3, Funny)
Jackhammer. Now that's news.
Or how about: "Good thing he doesn't play the tuba".
Deep Brain Stimulation Video (Score:3, Informative)
With Deep Brain Stimulation, the patient is often awake for as much of the surgery as possible. The surgeries usually can be done in a morning or an afternoon.
Here is a video of a DBS surgery: http://www.or-live.com/vanderbilt/2319/ [or-live.com]
I asked... (Score:2)
Will someone PLEASE fire that nurse!
A guy goes to the doctor (Score:2)
and he wants to know if he'll be able to play the banjo if the surgery is a success. The doctor reassures him that he will. The guy is amazed and says "that's incredible! I never could figure it out before."
Anyone else picturing... (Score:2)
Eddie Adcock is one of the giants (Score:3, Interesting)
Decidedly low tech? (Score:2)
If I may be so bold as to make a car analogy -
It's like the mechanic taking the hood off the car, strapping himself to the engine, telling you to drive down the road, and banging on the engine in different spots and having you yell when the funny noise stops.
I sincerely hope that some day we truly understand the
And the Question of the day is..... (Score:2)
Brain tuning (Score:2)
The most sensible thing to do was to tweak the system while Adcock was playing the banjo to optimize the effect for the thing that's most important to him.
So . . . they calibrated his brain?
Where can I go to get a brain tuning optimized for programming computers and playing games? I see huge potential in this. Scary potential, true, but huge all the same.
A couple generations of this and "specialist" and "idiot savant" will be synonyms :-)
Celebrity Deathmatch (Score:2)
Not the first time a plucked string instrument.. (Score:2)
...has been used in brain surgery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLCL [wikipedia.org]
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And if you were a fan of that musician searching for stories about him, what different tag would you try?
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Re:Tag? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, they're that immature.
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Yes, they're that immature.
Listen buddy, your low UID doesn't mean you're not one of us!
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Re:Tag? (Score:5, Funny)
I just hope no one from Slashdot forum has to undergo such a procedure as Adcock did. They might allow you to play with your banjo in the operating room but with their hobbies tending towards masturbation and all... Well you get the idea..
-*ZIP ZIP ZAP!*- "Giggidy Giggidy! Right there doc! Hold whatcha got!"
Re:Tag? (Score:4, Funny)
If I have to have a procedure, better it be Adcock than Subtractcock!
Re:I heard this on the stupid radio yesterday (Score:4, Funny)
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You'll have to excuse the rest of the readers for not listening to the same radio stations that you do.
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It's very common to have brain surgery like this while awake. In fact it's more common than being unconscious for this type of "functional" surgery because they need to know what they are doing to you in real time.
Usually they anethetise the patient for the first bit, opening the skull and so on. Then they gently bring them back to consciousness to check that the operation is not effecting brain function adversely. For example, when a tumour is removed in speech areas they'll have a nice chat with the patient. Once done they'll put the patient back under. The conscious part of the operation doesn't usually last that long.
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to check that the operation is not effecting brain function adversely.
Affecting
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Brain function? Grammar?
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It also helps that you don't have pain receptors (or pressure receptors?) inside your brain, only around it.
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Brain surgery's not Rocket Science for chrissakes...
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I have a friend who constantly gets those mixed up... "it's not brain science" she says, or "it's not rocket surgery."
I think she does it deliberately to irritate people.
Rocket surgery (Score:2)
I have a friend who constantly gets those mixed up... "it's not brain science" she says, or "it's not rocket surgery."
But if you're repairing a spacecraft, is that "brain surgery" or "rocket science"?
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We appreciate the citation, but next time more info than a last name and year would be useful. There were a lot of Franks running around in 2006, I'm sure.
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Found it. [sciencedirect.com]
The author and year alone are not enough, but couple it with the subject of the research and finding it is fairly trivial.
He did publish a couple of other studies on this during 2006, however, so this may still not be the study the GP was citing.