ABSTRACT
‘Chance favours the prepared mind’ was my observation at the end of the account of our foray into the fascinating tragedy which is Parkinson’s disease. We had some choice chances, choice in both senses, when opportunity offered us entrée into a seemingly related although far more benign disorder, musician’s dystonia. As so often, the chain of personal choice and effect extends far back, to the early 1970s, when I was approached by a charismatic and talented Canadian girl, Anne Gates, with an unusually useful combination of qualifications, including physics (with acoustics), experimental psychology and music. She had come across some of my early publications, and wanted to do a PhD with me. Our collaboration proved amazingly fruitful, in no small part due to the wealth of electronic and acoustic gear we bought, invented or constructed, at a time when we were blessed with an enthusiastic and collaborative electronics workshop.
