By Paddy Kamen, Publisher, BetterBrainBetterLife.com
Art has an enduring impact on the human brain. A case in point is the late Canadian sculptor Mary Hecht, an internationally renowned sculptor who died in April 2013. Despite having lost the ability to draw the face of a clock or conduct a normal conversation, Hecht, who had advanced dementia, retained her talent for drawing from memory and could talk knowledgeably about art. This is good news indeed. As many of us know all too well from having family members who are affected by dementia, much, if not all of the joy goes out of life when one can no longer engage in simple activities that formerly gave pleasure.
"Art opens the mind," said Dr. Luis Fornazzari, neurological consultant at St. Michael's Hospital's Memory Clinic and lead author of a paper about Hecht. "Mary Hecht was a remarkable example of how artistic abilities are preserved in spite of the degeneration of the brain and a loss in the more mundane, day-to-day memory functions."
"Art opens the mind," said Dr. Luis Fornazzari, neurological consultant at St. Michael's Hospital's Memory Clinic and lead author of a paper about Hecht. "Mary Hecht was a remarkable example of how artistic abilities are preserved in spite of the degeneration of the brain and a loss in the more mundane, day-to-day memory functions."
"This is the most exceptional example of the degree of preservation of artistic skills we've seen in our clinic," said Dr. Corinne Fischer, director at St. Michael's Hospital's Memory Clinic and another of the paper's authors. "As well, most of the other studies that have been done in this area looked at other kinds of dementia such as Alzheimer's disease or frontal temporal dementia, while this is a case of cognitive reserve in a patient with fairly advanced vascular dementia."
According to the news release from St. Michael's Hospital, "Dr. Fornazzari previously wrote a paper detailing a musician who, despite declining health because of Alzheimer's disease, could still play the piano and learn new music. As well, in October 2011, Dr. Fischer and colleagues looked at bilingual patients with Alzheimer's and discovered they had twice as much cognitive reserve as their unilingual counterparts."
My own mother has lost her ability to do pretty much everything that gave her pleasure: simple knitting, sewing, baking, gardening, and playing cards. But she did have a brief flourish of painting in oils about 20 years ago. I'm going to visit her soon and I'll bring along some paints. And as for my personal development, this news will hopefully prompt me to get off my left brain butt (I know, that metaphor doesn't hold any longer) and learn Spanish or get back into writing poetry.
Copyright 2014, Paddy Kamen. All rights reserved.
According to the news release from St. Michael's Hospital, "Dr. Fornazzari previously wrote a paper detailing a musician who, despite declining health because of Alzheimer's disease, could still play the piano and learn new music. As well, in October 2011, Dr. Fischer and colleagues looked at bilingual patients with Alzheimer's and discovered they had twice as much cognitive reserve as their unilingual counterparts."
My own mother has lost her ability to do pretty much everything that gave her pleasure: simple knitting, sewing, baking, gardening, and playing cards. But she did have a brief flourish of painting in oils about 20 years ago. I'm going to visit her soon and I'll bring along some paints. And as for my personal development, this news will hopefully prompt me to get off my left brain butt (I know, that metaphor doesn't hold any longer) and learn Spanish or get back into writing poetry.
Copyright 2014, Paddy Kamen. All rights reserved.