Emergence of artistic talent in frontotemporal dementia.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the clinical, neuropsychological, and imaging features of five patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) who acquired new artistic skills in the setting of dementia.


BACKGROUND
Creativity in the setting of dementia has recently been reported. We describe five patients who became visual artists in the setting of FTD.


METHODS
Sixty-nine FTD patients were interviewed regarding visual abilities. Five became artists in the early stages of FTD. Their history, artistic process, neuropsychology, and anatomy are described.


RESULTS
On SPECT or pathology, four of the five patients had the temporal variant of FTD in which anterior temporal lobes are involved but the dorsolateral frontal cortex is spared. Visual skills were spared but language and social skills were devastated.


CONCLUSIONS
Loss of function in the anterior temporal lobes may lead to the "facilitation" of artistic skills. Patients with the temporal lobe variant of FTD offer a window into creativity.
Department of Neurology, University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine, USA.
B L
BL
Miller
J
J
Cummings
F
F
Mishkin
K
K
Boone
F
F
Prince
M
M
Ponton
C
C
Cotman
D000368:Aged; D001154:Art; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003405:Creativity; D003704:Dementia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D010781:Photography; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon