Art and Dementia

Reading Bruce Millers article what I found to be quite interesting was that art was not only considered a visual process but also a form of language based process. I found it interesting that individuals who developed PPA symptoms could develop new musical or artistic abilities. I was stunned that as patients such as Anne Adams, whose language was degenerating, that she was still able to grow as a better artists. Usually when one thinks of brain deficits or anything involving brain abnormalities you expect to lose skill not gain a better artistic ability as in Anne Adams case. My best friend’s grandmother has Alzheimer’s and she tells me how it’s getting worse and worse and how her grandmother is starting to forget a lot. I never knew that art was used as a tool to help engage and connect with people who have dementia. Although recent memories and thinking ability may decline with Alzheimer’s, your long-term memories are still there, as are your emotions, and art and music for people with dementia can help remember them as well as express them. Art is also a great way to express joy and creativity among these patients. Slowly forgetting everything must make people very frustrated because Alzheimer’s is a serious illness, so by engaging the patients in these activities it can help relax them and express them self through their creativity. I view art to be a great rehabilitation technique for patients with dementia.   Patients with dorsal stream dysfunction is damaging to painting because both the ventral in recognition and dorsal stream in localization, as well as the cortical and sub cortical brain regions are crucial in artistry. The nondominant hemisphere is the one that is dominant for visual art, so any damage to it can cause major defect to a person’s creativity.