Benign Essential Blepharospasm Relieved by the Production of Music

Description

The video shows a patient with benign essential blepharospasm, whose abnormal eye closure movements resolve when producing music, such as playing the oboe or singing aloud, but persist with similar nonmusical tasks, such as mimicking playing the oboe or speaking aloud. This higher-order musical trick is analogous to the sensory tricks seen with other dystonias, and has not, to our knowledge, been previously described. Such tricks are believed to occur when proprioceptive (or other) inputs inhibit nearby. Reproduction of a portion of the song “Gabriel’s Oboe,” composed by Ennio Morricone, used with permission granted by BMG Rights Management (Canada) Inc. Click https://ja.ma/48tWBCO for related article.