[Visual art, creativity and dementia].
BACKGROUND
Visual art is an expression of neurological function and how it organizes and interprets perception. The art is predominantly in the right hemisphere, in contrast, the left side, have inhibitory effects on artistic expression. In normal subjects, inhibitory and excitatory mechanisms could interact in a complex harmony, reflecting a paradoxical functional facilitation. Brain diseases such as dementia could change this harmony and then, alter the artistic abilities.


OBJECTIVE
Evaluate the art expression in the degenerative diseases.


METHODS
Artistic abilities of 3 painters with degenerative diseases were assessment.


RESULTS
Patient 1: A 83 - year old right handed female, diagnosis: Alzheimer's disease. Artistic description: low productivity, simplified versions of earlier and alteration of the visuospatial organization. Patient 2: A 78-year-old right handed female, diagnosis: Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA); Artistic description: oversimplified drawings which maintaining overall spatial organization, without impair artistic skills. Patient 3: A 68 year-old right handed woman, diagnosis: Fronto-Temporal Dementia (FTD). Artistic description: Increased artistic activity, originality, freedom, utilization of intense colours with perseverative and repetitive copying of similar paintings of her own work.


CONCLUSIONS
Visual art in Alzheimer's disease is a consequence of visuospatial and constructive disabilities. In contrast, the conservation of this cognitive functions and left asymmetrical involved, in FTD and PPA respectively, suggest artistic preservation, independently of the language injury. The disproportionate functional prevalence of the right over the left could lead to a release of novelty - seeking in art and can contribute to emergent creativity. These observations suggest an organization for art in the brain and proposed bases for further investigations in dementias.
Serrano
C
C
Servicio de Neuropsicología SIREN-IUC (Instituto Universitario CEMIC), Buenos Aires, Argentina. ceciliamserrano@yahoo.com.ar
Allegri
R F
RF
Martelli
M
M
Taragano
F
F
Rinalli
P
P
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology; D018888:Aphasia, Primary Progressive / Q000523:psychology; D003405:Creativity; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010151:Paintings