AA and Artistic Expression in Patients with Cortical Degeneration

Artists are often perceived as containing more of whatever it is that makes us human. They, themselves, are expressions of the human condition. Throughout history, they have been tasked with expressing the inexpressible: music, nature, emotion, and more. But, Dr. Bruce Miller states that patients with less - that is, patients with neurodegenerative diseases - are still capable of creating fantastic pieces of art. While this is a rarity, and most Alzheimer's Disease and neurodegenerative patients are in capable of producing coherent artwork, some patients excel. In addition, a patient's road to recover can be tracked through their artwork as they become more and more capable of expressing themselves.

Artwork is considered a "flow" activity. The act of creation is addicting and encompasses multiple areas of the brain. While "predominantly a visual process," researchers anticipate that artists access their OMPFCs when planning and organizing a work, their cingulate cortexes when in need of drive and motivation, and their premotor and motor cortexes when executing their artistic acts. Since creating art utilizes so many different areas of the brain, medical professionals have ability the assess the severity of cortical damage after a stroke and the ability to track the recover of stroke patients. As patients improve, often their unilateral neglect subsides (never fully) and their ability to execute cognitive functions (depending on the location of the lesion) improves. 

Miller focused in particular on one patient, named AA. AA, due to an severe degeneration of her inferior frontal-insular, temporal, and striatal regions, became adept at  reproducing visual representations (at the end, almost photographically) in her art, while simultaneously being mute as a result of her disease. French composer Maurice Ravel also suffered from a similar progressive aphasia. Ravel is famous for his piece, Boléro, which he produced late into his illness. 

Miller argues that as a result of the complete lateral degradation of their left inferior frontal and temporal hemispheres, the right OMPFC, responsible for many aspects of visuospatial and aural functions, went into overdrive," allowing the artists to create such magnificent works of art.

Regardless of its potential to give artists the ability to create art, this neurodegeneration and creative bursts as a result of the illness allow medical professionals to track the recover and asses the damage to cortical areas of patients with said diseases.