Creative Results of Brain Damage
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa011&articleID=7EAB47BF3A57DB8E440E5A788467C37F
The artlicle I have chosen to research deals with the "creative" outcome of a certain type of brain damage. Patients who have had certain kinds of injuries have developed severe mental problems, but on the other hand certain skills have greatly improved. This article deals with the before and after look concerning this issue.
This certain condition is known as frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). It is caused when the front part of the brain deteriorates away. The result of this corrotion is the demention. People who have developed this condition have seen a dramatic inhancement in their artistic ability. Even those who have never even been artistic are now able to paint these amazing pistures. People must understand that this is a rare condition and that getting knocked out by a baseball will not turn you into the next Picaso. The question doctors and scientists are trieng to figure out is if the brain is relaeasing this talent somehow or if the disease is causing it. To investigate this doctors studied the work of a lady who was an artist before she developed FTLD and then watched the values of her work as the disease progressed. They discovered that her techniques improved overall but she was putting less emotion into the paintings. Basically she was a better painter but she didnt really care about what she painted.
Researchers concluded that the disease doesn't affect the area of the brain that accounts for the painting, drawling, and writing. What it does affect is the surrounding area of the brain, so that the articstic area has more room to expand with information since the other areas are brain dead. This disease also damages the emotional area, so that the victims don't have the same feelings that they once did. Therefore they can paint the pictures very well but there's no emotion in the them.
My response to this article is filled with a couple emotions. First off i feal a little bit sorry for the patients who have to experience this terrible disease, because no disease is really a good one. On the other hand i think it's pretty amazing that even through the tragedy of it they come out a little bit on top. It's strange to think a talent could arise from a disease. Don't get me wrong i wouldn't want to develope this tommorow just so I could be a better painter. Who knows, I've seen other instances of this on the news where kids develope brain conditions and then become masters at music. It's crazy how the mind all works and all the detail that was put into creating it. In the end i just think its tight to see how a positive could come from such a negative as this disease.
Yours Truly,
Ryan Sells
posted by AnatomicalBEAST @ 5:52 PM
5 Comments:
I agree with you that it was good how the positive artistic ability came from the disease.But I also think it is not that much of an advantage because paintings should have that emotion in them; when I look at paintings I like to see why the artist painted them and what inspired them, without that emotion the painting won't have a deeper meaning to it.It would be interesting to see what they could do to prevent the disease and if they have discovered anything else.I never knew about this disease and that your brain could expand with information.
I think it is ironic that something so terrible as brain damage could lead to something so great as amazing artistic ablility. I definitely agree with Beth Ann, painting needs to have emotion in it! I wonder if this same disease occured around a different part of the brain and could cause other things to be enhanced; such as math skills or reasoning skills. I had definitely never heard about this disease and thought this article was very interesting.
I agree with both Beth Ann and Erin int the fact that something negative and unfortunate like having a brain disability can result in a positive affect for one. What inspires an artist to create a painting is its emotion behind it. The artist is wanting to express themselves through art and to get a point across to the viewer about how they feel on a certain issue. Its a bittersweet feeling that the woman's condition improved her talent in artistic ability but as well depreaciated her feelings about the emotion behind the entire work. This disease is one I have never heard of before and is one I would like to know more about, especially with what Drago and her team are finding out that with aging, one may change with creativity.
This article was interesting in the sense of like when God closes a door, he opens another one. Ive heard of stuff like when someone goes blind their hearing increases, and such. But I agree i wouldnt want to become mentally ill just so i could do one thing amazingly well.
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