Overview of Musicogenic Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a neurological condition that causes unprovoked, recurrent seizures. Musicogenic epilepsy is an extremely rare type of epilepsy triggered by music.

Musicogenic epilepsy is a condition that involves seizures — sudden bursts of electrical activity in your brain that can cause symptoms such as loss of consciousness and uncontrollable muscle jerking.

This type of epilepsy is estimated to affect 1 in 10 million people. It’s been reported in professional musicians and people with no background in music.

Because musicogenic epilepsy is so rare, medical experts don’t know much about it. It seems to occur most often when people are listening to music but has also been reported in people who are playing music. The type of music that triggers seizures seems to vary from person to person.

Read on to learn more about this rare type of epilepsy, including symptoms, causes, and treatment options.

Most of what’s known about musicogenic epilepsy comes from small studies in which researchers analyzed one person or a small number of people with this specific type of epilepsy. The main symptom is sudden seizures that occur while listening to or playing music.

The seizures that occur in musicogenic epilepsy are usually complex focal seizures. This means they are isolated to one side of the brain and cause impairments in consciousness.

Musicogenic seizure symptoms reported in case studies include:

• subconscious chewing and swallowing
• paresthesias of hands
• rapid heart rate
• high blood pressure
• atypical abdominal sensations
• nausea and vomiting
• hallucinations
• a feeling of déjà vu

One study written in Spanish reported that some people experienced seizures accompanied by pleasant feelings.

Two case studies

In a 2023 study, researchers reported two cases of people with musicogenic seizures.

The first person was a 30-year-old woman with a history of type 1 diabetes. She experienced seizures that lasted up to 1 minute when listening to music that she liked. She reported the following symptoms:

• visual hallucinations
• nausea
• blue facial discoloration (cyanosis)
• a rising sensation in her abdomen attributed to fear

The second person was a 40-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes who had an average of 3 seizures per day. Her seizures lasted up to 1 minute. She reported:

• feeling like time expanded during her seizures
• an inability to speak during her seizures
• an ability to continue her current activity during a seizure
• an inability to recall names of everyday objects for up to 30 minutes (anomia)

Her seizures were triggered by contemporary hit radio songs.