But that's exactly what musician Dan Fabbio did, as surgeons worked to remove a tumor from his brain without disrupting his professional skills.

The story begins in 2015, when Fabbio, a musician and music teacher, suddenly began to experience hallucinations, dizziness and nausea. He was taken to hospital where doctors performed a CAT scan and found a large tumor in his brain – in an unfortunate coincidence, it happened to be right in a region that's been linked to musical processing and ability.

To help in instances such as this, researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a Translational Brain Mapping program. Before patients go in for surgery, they're put through a series of tests while their brains are being scanned, to highlight which areas are related to which functions, such as motor control and language processing.