Classical method of studying the mind-brain relationship: observing the consequences of localized brain damage.
Example: Broca's area damage leads to speech impairment.
Example: Wernicke's area damage leads to language comprehension issues.
Example: Damage to the hippocampus results in memory problems.
Example: Damage to the occipital lobes results in vision problems.
Hemispheric Specialization
The human brain has left and right hemispheres, each with specialized functions.
Precentral gyrus = Motor cortex
Motor and somatosensory cortices exist in both hemispheres.
Frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes.
Damage to the motor area in the left hemisphere leads to paralysis on the right side of the body, and vice versa.
Artists with left motor area damage may start using their left hand.
Key Questions After Brain Lesion
Which hemisphere is involved?
What specific brain region is damaged?
Can the artist still paint, sculpt, or draw artistically?
Has there been a loss of talent, skills, or creativity?
If there are alterations, how can they be explained?
Are these changes unique to artists, or are they also seen in non-artists?
Has the artist's genre or style changed?
Genre of Art
Genre refers to the style or art movement an artist belongs to (e.g., realistic, impressionism, expressionism, cubism, abstract art).
Expressionism. Example: The Scream by Munch which the reddish sky in the painting was influenced by the Krakatoa volcano eruption.
Cubism: Characterized by squarish looks and objects painted on top or on the side of each other.
Neural Underpinnings of Art Production
Informed by blood supply to specific brain regions, dementia diseases, and neurotransmitter diseases.
Etiologies: These conditions help us understand the neural underpinnings of art production in the brain.
Unilateral Damage
Starting with artists who have damage in either the left or right hemisphere.
Artist with Right Hemisphere Stroke.
Professional artist who made a living from their art.
The artist did not lose talent, skills, or creativity post-stroke.
Experienced left hemi neglect due to damage in the right parietal lobe.
Neglect of the left half of space. Intensional problem, which usually lasts for six to eight weeks.
Example: Self-portrait reflecting left hemi neglect.
Style, genre, creativity, talent or skill did not diminish.
Commissioned to create art even after stroke.
Artist Number three also had a right hemisphere stroke.
Suffered from left hemi neglect.
The artist did not lose talent, skills, or creativity.
Neglect slowly disappeared as the two hemispheres rebalanced their attentional mechanisms.
Artist with Left Hemisphere Stroke.
Experienced language problems (aphasia) and difficulties with the right hand (if right-handed).
The artist did not lose skill and talent.
Any changes were related to technical motor control issues.
The artist worked hard to continue painting.
Artist with Left Hemisphere Stroke and Broca's Aphasia
Broca's area is located right behind the left temple, near the motor area.
Experienced aphasia (loss of ability to speak or comprehend language).
Sculptor with Left Hemisphere Stroke
Right-handed; faced challenges sculpting with the non-dominant hand.
Aphasia doesn't abolish communication through art.
Old Theory about Art and Brain
The old theory posited that the right hemisphere specializes in art, implying control over creation and assessment.
Treated art as a single function, influenced by philosophers.
This is not what results are showing us.
Conceptualization of Art
Artistic ideas don't occur randomly; they take days or weeks to develop.
fMRI studies are challenging because artists change their work iteratively.
Art production involves talent, skills, thinking, and experience.
Conceptualization involves recruiting many different brain areas.
Memory (collection of experiences) and conscious/unconscious elements play a role in art production and assessment.
Dementia and Art
Studying artists with dementia helps understand the nature of the disease and its impact on art.
Alzheimer's Disease
Pathology: Plaques (clumps of protein) and neurofibrillary tangles (dead neurons).
Behavioral symptoms: Severe memory loss (hippocampal damage), perceptual abnormalities, spatial perception problems, object/face recognition issues, language deficits, and motor difficulties.
Language deficits indicate left brain involvement; spatial perception indicates right brain involvement.
Damage is diffused.
An artist can have a very slow progression of the disease.
Artist with Alzheimer's Disease (Case Study)
Professional illustrator and designer.
Loved painting Venice, especially a famous bridge.
Early signs: Changes in depiction of water, less detail, buildings look the same.
Later stage: Lines no longer parallel to the ground, figures simplified, generic faces.
More advanced: Faces all drawn the same way, repetition of design, magical objects.
End stage: Grotesque drawings, cross-hatching, but not creative.
Summary of Alzheimer's effects: Impaired forms, spatial relationships, simplification.
Magical objects, such as abnormal faces.
Artists use many brain areas for art production; diffuse damage causes deterioration.
Despite the disease, artists don't give up on their art until motor control is lost.
Second Artist with Alzheimer's Disease
Professional painter of abstract art.
Critics and friends disliked his later works.
His art deteriorated, he drank to much, critics didn't appreciate.
He had helpers in his studio who created smooth borders by rotating the canvas.
In his last seven years, he could barely do anything because he was losing motor control.
Third Artist with Alzheimer's Disease
Drew in an expressionist style before the disease.
Experienced difficulties in drawing a face and placing features correctly.
Still had artistic ability, but faced coordination challenges.
At the end, he drew ovals because it was easier and developed problems with spatial abilities and spatial cognition.
Despite their inability to communicate with language, the fact that they can't take care of themselves, they don't give up trying to produce.