World-class violinist performs while having brain surgery

A few years ago, world-class violinist Roger Frisch developed an essential tremor in his hands. Naturally, this is a major problem for someone who makes a living off of playing an instrument.

According to BuzzFeed, one of the best treatments available for the tremors is called deep brain stimulation, which involves sending electrical impulses right into the brain. Frisch turned to doctors at the Mayo Clinic to perform the brain surgery. But when doctors had trouble finding which part of his brain was affected, they came up with an interesting solution: having the violinist perform with his instrument during the actual brain surgery.

Frisch’s bow was hooked up to an accelerometer, and the doctors were able to pinpoint when during the surgery his playing was most stable. This led to them pinpointing the exact spot in his thalamus that was causing the tremors. You can learn all about it in the video below: