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Musical Hallucinations Of Lost Memories - A Case Study

A new case study outlines the instance of a 60-year-old woman who suddenly began hearing music, as if a radio were playing at the back of her head.


She couldn't identify the music but when she hummed or sang the tunes, her husband was able to recognize them. She didn't know the songs but she was hallucinating music familiar to people around her. 

Neurologists Danilo Vitorovic and José Biller of Loyola University Medical Center say the case raises "intriguing questions regarding memory, forgetting and access to lost memories."

Musical hallucinations are a form of auditory hallucinations, in which patients hear songs, instrumental music or tunes, even though no such music is actually playing. Most patients realize they are hallucinating, and find the music intrusive and occasionally unpleasant. There is no cure.


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1 response
I've always had music in the back of my head. I thought everyone did until I started hearing of people who were deprived of it. When I was little, it was normal to sing or whistle whenever, wherever. I miss it. When I do hear someone on the street singing or whistling a tune, I'll try to catch up and thank them. Often, their response is, "Thanks. Most People think I'm crazy." What a shame. Music used to belong to everybody. Now you have to be discovered, signed, "successful"....or in the shower.