# What sort of brain damage would you volunteer for?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-brain-damage-would-you-volunteer-for/534458>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 31, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-brain-damage-would-you-volunteer-for/534458 "2010-03-31T15:23:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-brain-damage-would-you-volunteer-for/534458/21 "2010-04-02T02:42:24Z")

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> [@statsman1982](#):
>
> Some part of me wishes that I could have the form of brain damage that can unleash some other hidden talent, such as drawing or musical ability. Me, I would go for damage that would let me play the piano by ear, but would leave enough of the current me intact so that I could enjoy it.

Brain damage doesn’t give you free gifts. What happens sometimes is that in losing one ability you free up some space for another, which is why blind people, for instance, are more likely to have perfect pitch.

But creative talent requires both some innate ability and a fair bit of work. Having perfect pitch won’t allow you to magically play an instrument, that takes practice and discipline. The great majority of good musicians _don’t_ have perfect pitch, what they have is good _relative_ pitch developed by putting in a lot of work. Yes, good musicians were born with innate abilities, but every single one of them also worked like a bastard to hone those abilities.

Good musicians make it _seem_ effortless: speaking as someone who can play several instruments to a high standard, I can tell you there’s a heck of a lot of obsessive work behind every apparently effortless performance.

Some people are born with innate talents, but without developing those talents, you’re never going to be able use them. There’s no kind of brain damage that will give you musical skills without any effort on your part. At best you’d be able to consciously hear subtleties in music that most people never notice.

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-brain-damage-would-you-volunteer-for/534458/22 "2010-04-02T02:55:01Z")

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> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> Could I lose that part that causes sleep? I could do fine by not sleeping anymore-it is like being dead, anyways.

You could. [Unfortunately](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia), never sleeping isn’t just like being dead; it’s the real thing.

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**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sort-of-brain-damage-would-you-volunteer-for/534458/23 "2010-04-03T06:16:36Z")

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Hmm, no I don’t think so. Even after months of therapy to re-learn how to keep my balance and walk straight, and a few years of practice doing so, my current brain and nerve damage are more than enough to keep me occupied for the rest of my life.

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