Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today it's my honor to have really one of my favorite people, Oliver Sacks, as my guest.

His new book is Musicophilia, Tales of Music in the Brain,

and it's published by Knappf.

Now, tell me, let's start in a way that my listeners can identify with,

what parts of the brain respond to music?

A great many different parts of the brain.

There's no one music center, different parts of the brain,

respond to pitch, to timbre, to melodic contour, to harmonies,

and really much more of the brain is recruited for music than for language.

You come from a musical family, and not only that, but a family of physicians.

Your mother was a surgeon who practiced well into her 70s.

Do you know, is there a connection between, that you've found,

between this kind of precision and music?

I like to think so.

There are a lot of good amateur musicians among

physicians, also among scientists, also among mathematicians, but I, you know, and one can

...