That Stardust Malady

Music had small charm for Donald Morton. He could not read a note; he had difficulty recognizing tunes; he could not easily tell the sound of one instrument from another. He could not distinguish between an orchestral performance and organ music. Still, by the time he was 35, Morton had learned all too well that there was some music he could tolerate--and some he could not. Loud, fast songs--college marches, the 1812 Overture, New Orleans jazz, rock 'n' roll--went, in effect, in one ear and out the other. They left him unmoved. On the other hand, the soft, sweet rhythms of Stardust, Deep Purple or Abide With Me gave Morton frightening seizures. He would stare vacantly, twitch, turn his head to the left, make smacking sounds with his lips, utter growling noises and sometimes slump to the floor. The Whiffenpoof Song and Indian Love Call were bad, but not quite so disturbing.

It took just about every test known to neurologists before doctors at the University of Wisconsin Medical Center were certain what was wrong: Donald Morton was suffering from musicogenic epilepsy, a disease as rare as it is difficult to treat. And if diagnosis was difficult, treatment was tedious indeed.

Seized by Carols. Working with a team of acoustical engineers, Wisconsin's Dr. Francis M. Forster and his colleagues determined just what songs, just what instruments, just what rhythms caused Morton to have an epileptic seizure. Hooked up to an electroencephalograph, their patient listened to music with one ear, with the other, and then with both. He listened to a random noise generator with one ear while music was piped to the other. Stardust played on the organ produced no abnormalities; Glenn Miller's orchestrated version touched off fits. Hymns and Christmas carols played by an orchestra, or by a piano with a vocalist chiming in, caused equal trouble. Eventually the doctors were ready to start "extinction therapy"--a sort of reverse Pavlovian conditioning in which a patient is trained not to respond to a particular stimulus.

Endless Tapes. In their effort to condition Morton to tolerate "noxious" music, the doctors decided to concentrate on Stardust because it was available in so many versions, so many combinations of instruments and artists. They taped "innocuous" (organ) renditions of the song and played those for Morton. Then they dubbed in larger and larger segments of a noxious Glenn Miller version and played the altered tape. They played it endlessly. Morton listened to dozens of variations and combinations of Stardust--6,000 times. Eventually it was "extinguished" as a cause of seizure.

After it was extinguished in Spanish, a French version became innocuous, although Morton knows neither language. It was extinguished with Pat Suzuki as a vocalist and with Keeley Smith. Along with some other songs, Stardust was extinguished in just about every possible variation. In the process, most other noxious music was extinguished too. Now, after ten months of treatment, Donald Morton is getting ready to go back to work as a draftsman. He has innocuous tapes that he can play if he ever feels a seizure coming on. Today Donald Morton can even abide Abide With Me.

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