Some Brain Disorders Might Improve Artistic Abilities

New research suggests that “some types of dementia may release new areas of creativity, which grow and develop as language skills decline.” An artist in her early fifties was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a rare type of inherited dementia, but though some of her other abilities declined, her work as an artist got markedly better. “Whatever the mechanism, our patient represents a remarkable example of how a truly talented individual can continue to evolve and create in the face of a degenerative brain disease.”