title: Shadows and darkness in the brain of a genius: aspects of the neuropsychological literature about the final illness of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937).
abstract: In 1948 the famous French neurologist Théophile Alajouanine published the article "Aphasia and artistic realization", a landmark in the field of research about aphasia, which discussed the case of the composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). Since then, many researchers have explored the final illness of the composer. In 2003 Medical Science Monitor published 2 articles about the case. In this article we intend to present works published on the Ravel case, to discuss them, and to suggest a general overview on the topic.      Many hypotheses have been proposed by researchers, but complete diagnosis is still an enigma, since no post-mortem was made. The most up-to-date perspective seems to point to comorbidity of superimposed elements, which might date back to the composer's fragile youth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Aging, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy. g.cavallera@email.it
authors.forename: Guido M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Cavallera
authors.forename: Simonettta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Giudici
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tommasi
mesh_terms: D001037:Aphasia / Q000266:history* / Q000523:psychology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D005197:Famous Persons; D005602:France; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D009484:Neuropsychology / Q000266:history*