Music On The Mind: Oliver Sacks' 'Musicophilia'

Fresh Air

Published October 3, 2008 at 11:03 AM EDT

Ever wonder how a song gets stuck in your head? Neurologist Oliver Sacks explains this and other mind-music mysteries in Musicophilia, a collection of essays detailing the 20-30 neural networks that allow us to decipher pitch from melody, and cacophony from chorus.

Sacks is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and the author 10 books, including of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat.

This interview was originally broadcast on Oct. 17, 2007.

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