Dr. Millers talk on Art and the Brain

Art to me means being creative and seeing beauty in different ways. According to Dr. Miller art is uniquely human. He gives us a story on how he started to get involve with art. It is interesting that he mention something that happen to him as a child. As a child his mom would drag him to the Art Institute of Chicago literally. He describe that his mom was fascinated with art. He then describes two types of patients one with Alzheimer's disease and the other Frontal Temporal Dementia. According to one of his heroes Mesulam there are two regions of the brain: the prefrontal cortex which is located where FTD patients and parietal lobe. In frontal temporal dementia their parietal lobe drastically changes their artwork. That is why we see many different changes. Alzheimers patients have visuospatial deficit but can see colors really well.What really fascinated me that Dr. Miller mention some way to draw. He mention he was taught by an instructor and it help him. It could especially help those who lack the left hemisphere the instructors idea was to draw a picture upside down. That way you are able to use that part of the brain and I believe you are more focused. He showed a video on emotional deficits. It was a mother speaking to her son named Victor and he could not tell when the kid was in pain. Especially when he approach the kid with a squeeze iI believe. Victor didn't know that the kid felt pain. The other thing about Victor is that his paintings were of couples. He was obsess with drawing odd looking couples his way of perceiving them. An interesting fact about him was that his relationships were short and never worked out so he no longer were in a relationship. To be honest this seminar was very interesting to me. I enjoy art especially when it is so bizarre looking.