The temporal lobe is the part of the brain that stores music – not just the lyrics, but the emotional signatures glued to them. It is why you can forget a birthday but remember every word of an old Kishore Kumar classic. It is the lobe that hums even when you don’t. It holds memory, language, rhythm, fear, nostalgia, and the entire soundtrack of your teenage years. If the frontal lobe is the editor and the parietal lobe the director, the temporal lobe is the DJ.
A few months ago, I met a 48-year-old musician named Edwin. He walked into my clinic looking like someone who had stepped straight out of an ’80s album cover: shoulder-length hair, faded denim jacket, sunglasses indoors, and the gentle confidence of a man who had once performed for an audience that paid in applause and samosas. He had the kind of voice that sounded like it had lived inside a recording studio and the kind of laugh that belonged backstage.
“Doctor,” he said, “my family thinks I’m behaving strangely.” Musicians say this often, so I kept a straight face. “What kind of strange?” I asked. “My wife says I repeat myself,” he said, “and my daughter says I keep hearing music that isn’t playing.” He paused. “But, to be fair, both of them say that even when nothing is wrong.” His wife, seated next to him, rolled her eyes hard enough. “He’s been forgetting conversations,” she said. “And last week, he told a waiter ‘Thank you’… in E flat.”
The MRI clarified the mystery. A sizable cavernous malformation, a small cluster of fragile blood vessels, sat snugly in the left temporal lobe. If unattended, these vessels could leak and irritate the surrounding tissue. It wasn’t dangerous yet, but it explained his symptoms. The temporal lobe doesn’t like being disturbed. It reacts the way musicians do when someone touches their instruments without permission.
I explained the anatomy. The temporal lobe sits on the side of the brain, behind the ear, and is responsible for processing sound, language, memory, and emotion. A centimetre here can change how you speak. A millimetre there can change how you hear your favourite song. The hippocampus hides within it, storing life’s scenes like an old videotape. The amygdala sits nearby, assigning meaning and emotion to all those scenes. It is a crowded neighbourhood, and one wrong move can shift the tone of who you are. As we discussed surgery, Edwin kept humming ’80s songs under his breath, bits of “Take On Me,” “Eye of the Tiger,” and, at one point, what sounded suspiciously like “Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko.” The temporal lobe, I realised, had excellent taste.
During surgery, when you gently get into the temporal lobe, the fibres shimmer like stretched guitar strings. The cavernoma sat quietly in the middle, a dark purple berry nestled in a field of pale tissue. Removing it requires patience, steady hands, and the ability to resist humming along to whatever song your patient had stuck in your head the previous day. I removed it in one piece, placed it on the tray, and for a moment, it looked like the world’s most unappetising blueberry.
He woke up beautifully, his speech intact, his memory sharper, his internal jukebox finally silent. When he came for a follow-up two weeks later, he looked different: his hair was tied up, his sunglasses were off, and he looked a little more grounded, a little less like an ’80s rock god. “Doctor,” he said, “for the first time in months, my head is quiet.” His wife added, “And he hasn’t sung in the shower this week.” He shrugged. “I didn’t say I was completely cured!”
The temporal lobe is where memory meets melody, where emotion meets language, where past meets present. It’s the lobe that separates your ex from your current. It is the lobe that reminds us of who we were and helps us make sense of who we are. When something grows there, even something small, life can slip off-key. Remove it, and the music returns.
As he left my clinic, he turned back and said, “Doctor, when can I start singing again?”
I smiled. “Immediately.”
His wife whispered, “Please don’t encourage him.”
And that, I suppose, is the real miracle of the temporal lobe. You can fix the brain, but the marriage remains a song and dance.
42 thoughts on “The temporal lobe”
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Dr Mazda, Another masterpiece from your pen (actually your keyboard)… beautifully worded and a perfect combination of neurosurgery with humour, which is your signature style!!
👏👏👏
I totally agree with Ashish, its one of your most lucidly written article the comparison between the parts if the brain n the musical instruments were just one of a kind.
Happy new year Mazda.
Excellent article dear Mazda
Superb..
Wow..nicely written…awsm
The most unappetising blueberry😂 . Nicely explained.. wait was long this time😅
Wow!
Excellent write up dr. Mazda Turel
Thanks doctor. I will remember the DJ when I hum the lyrics of my favourite song for life without music is just unthinkable for many of us.
Love the ending – you can fix the brain – but not the marriage!
Did I miss the article last week – or was none posted?
Just checking….
Symphony of the Brain
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Nice write up from bottom of your heart,
Pl keep it up
I love your metaphoric thinking. Excellent and educative – as usual.
Keep writing
Once again, Dr Mazda you have explained a difficult concept using regular terms, which makes you the best scribe ever.
As usual very nice and gripping
Beautiful to know this Dr. Mazda. Everyday a song comes to me out of nowhere, a very few times afterwards I become aware it’s playing along in low soft tune somewhere long but it always amaze me it brings along a few memories to cherish my crazy heart.
Super!This time it was a musical neurosurgery worthy of recieving a filmfare…Continue your amazing Sunday write up ritual..Stay blessed..
Excellent nourishing morning read.
Grateful ☺️
Doc… I am short of words to describe a genius like you, hence I shall refrain !!!
Excellent information,
Dr.Mazda, you have incredible quality and professional knowledge and you make a layman understand your conversation in an easy way.
Many more information yet to be learnt from you.
God bless You 🙏
Amazing amazing!!!
Dr Mazda,
I enjoy reading your articles.
You are based in Mumbai.
So just curious, How come people are commenting from 2-3 am onwards.
Lovely Article!
Excellent writing skills along with deft fingers dear Doc! 👏 👏
Superb !
“Accurately identifying a disease, diagnosing it correctly, and providing effective treatment is exceptional.”
“And the way you are expressing this entire sequence of events in words is truly excellent.”
👍👍👍🙏
Beautifully captured and presented
What a joy to wake up on Sunday morning to an article written by you. So informative and refreshing. Many thanks.
I can hardly wait for your article on the occipital lobe!!
As usual excellent write up as usual thanks. Two things I wait every Sunday what next surprise episode you will do and other it’s like medicine to my what to do and not to do. Oh and I would like to be be just like Edwin because music is my soul partner in my life.
How can you be both a brilliant doctor in a field requiring the greatest skills and an accomplished writer with great turns of phrase…all at once?
Thank you, Dr. Mazda, for the valuable medical insights, clear explanations, and professional delivery of information in an accessible and easy-to-understand manner. Much appreciated.
Dr. Mazda, amazing as always.
Thanks!
Excellent write up,
Your Article Completes my Sunday.
Keep it up and God bless you
One can fix the DJ but marriage sings a different tune every day.
The dark purple berry…ugly but I could visualise it….so well described.
GE Dr. Nicely explained. Wish a very happy new Year.
Thank you Doctor for taking us on this insightful/ musical tour of the Temporal Lobe. The adept use of metaphors was brilliant.
Agreed absolutely!
Dear Dr. Mazda,
I just finished reading your article on the temporal lobe and I was blown away! Your unique perspective and insights were truly enlightening. You’ve made a complex topic incredibly engaging and accessible. Thank you for sharing your expertise and inspiring us to learn more!
Best regards & a very happy new year to my favorite Doctor, who has a unique sense of humour
Dear Dr Mazda,
Yet another masterclass, lovingly wrapped in poetic metaphors and allusions. It’s an absolute wonder that this mass of cells holds the very essence of self, perceptions, personality and character. Thank you for helping us understand the symphony of the lobes.
Thank you Doctor for this information
Dear doctor thank u for taking us thru this musical journey. Happy new year to u and ur dear ones. Hope to have more such writings this year too.
We all wait for the next one
Enjoyed reading your article as always