The creative drive is one of mankind's most distinguishing characteristics, leaving its mark on the cave walls of our earliest ancestors, the ceilings of our grandest cathedrals, and the alleyways of our most impoverished cities. The subject of creativity has long been the domain of art and philosophy, but as our scientific understanding has evolved so to has our approach to things like creativity. With the advances in imaging techniques and cognitive psychology, we have slowly been able to open the door to a realm that has traditionally been reserved for the consideration of our world's greatest literary and metaphysical minds. It is as an exciting time as ever to be involved in the study of the mind as we slowly unravel the mysteries behind one of our species most unique and exhilarating abilities.
Being devoid of most artistic abilities myself, I find it interesting that maybe I am just one degenerative disease away from connecting with my creative side. All inappropriate kidding aside, the work of Dr. Bruce Miller exemplifies how some of sciences most awe-inspiring and fascinating discoveries are made through a simple chance observation. Certainly, Dr. Miller would not have imagined that his detailed study of such devastating neurodegenerative diseases would lead to valuable insights into the neurological basis of creativity. Many of these insights come from frontotemporal patients, notably the late Anne Adams.With honors degrees in physics and chemistry, Adams did not seem the type to be absorbed in a world of visual art. But after leaving the academic world to care for her son, who had been injured in an accident, Adams became more and more preoccupied with her painting. Showing an aptitude at rendering realistic scenes, her art then evolved into a transmodal landscape, incorporating abstract concepts into visually stunning works of art. Her most impressive work, "Unraveling Bolero", is a masterpiece, transcribing the work of the French composer Maurice Ravel into captivating canvas, each section of music receiving a carefully articulated visual counterpart. As her disease progressed, in this case through the left inferior frontal, temporal and striatal regions, so too did her artwork, shifting again toward more realistic representations of her world. Imaging of Adams brain revealed both the disease progression through the aforementioned regions but it also revealed a striking increase in grey matter areas in her right parietal lobe. This observation lead Miller to a possible, two-fold explanation behind Adams and similar patients burst of creativity during the onset of disease. Firstly, Miller believed that the degeneration of the left frontal regions led to a sort of inhibition of the inhibition that the frontal lobes are famous for. The so-called "Release Theory" is popular among neuroscientists who seek to explain the myriad of behavioral effects of frontal lesions on the individual. The relaxation of the frontal lobes inhibitory mechanisms can be used to try to explain a surge of activity associated with other brain areas following the frontal damage. In Miller's case, the loss of inhibition in the left frontal lobe allows for a previously somewhat dormant right hemisphere to emerge as a major player in cognition. The second part of Miller's explanation involve the increase functionality of the right hemisphere seen by the increase in grey matter density and hyperperfusion. The areas observed to be now highly active correlate with areas traditionally associated with many of the tasks vital for visually rendering one's world, skills no doubt essential in visual artistry. The result of these two factors interacting is that we have a highly active "artistic" part of the brain no longer under the constraints of the dominant left hemisphere. A highly plausible and excruciatingly interesting hypothesis from one of the most exciting fields of research I have yet to come across.
As Dr. Miller and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco continue their research, they will hopefully be able to uncover more of the underlying neural mechanisms behind humanity's most scientifically intractable capacities. I know that I will be eagerly awaiting their future publications, especially to figure out just what it is I am missing when I fail miserably to sketch even the simplest of forms.
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