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EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 5:30 PM CST, THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1998
Artistic Talents Blossom in Some Dementia Patients A rare form of dementia brings out artistic talents in people who never had them before, according to a study released during the American Academy of NeurologyÃs 50th Anniversary Annual Meeting April 25-May 2 in Minneapolis, MN.
A stockbroker left his firm to become an artist. A homemaker started drawing scenes from her childhood. And a man with no musical background began composing quartets.
"Paradoxically, for these people a period of exceptional creativity heralded the beginnings of a tragic disease," said neurologist Bruce L. Miller, MD, of the University of California-Los Angeles.
The talents flourished as the dementia worsened. One man received a patent for a chemical detector he invented ñ at a time when he was able to name only one of 15 common objects on a word-retrieval test. Another man designed sprinklers at his house when he was not able to speak. And the stockbroker-turned-artist won awards at local art shows as his social and language skills eroded.
Miller identified 12 people who acquired or sustained visual or musical talents while suffering from frontotemporal dementia, a disorder that causes cell loss in the parts of the brain that regulate social behavior, resulting in personality changes. But most people with this dementia donÃt develop artistic talents.
Using brain imaging scans and other tests of 80 people with this dementia, researchers found differences in how the disease affects those with artistic talent. In most people, the disease causes cell loss in both the frontal lobes of the brain and the front part of the temporal lobes. But in most of those with artistic talent, only the front of the temporal lobes was affected, and the cell loss was greater on the left side of the brain. (This difference also occurred in 12 people who did not exhibit artistic talent.)
Unaffected was the rear of the temporal lobes, which interprets the visual world ñ shape, color and movement. Researchers believe that degeneration in one part of the brain leads to enhancement in another area -- in this case, heightened activity in the visual brain. The intact frontal lobes, responsible for complex thought and planning, allow patients to execute their visual and musical talents.
Studying these patients can help researchers learn how visual and musical abilities occur in the brain, Miller said.
The research has changed MillerÃs approach to patients, he said. "ItÃs not a concept in dementia that something could be getting better," he said. "We never think about the strengths of patients, we only think of the weaknesses. Now I always ask if thereÃs anything patients are doing very well, or better than before. This is a remarkable response to a dementing illness."
Frontotemporal dementia is genetic in many cases, and usually develops in people in their 50s.
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