Why would Parkinson's disease lead to sudden changes in creativity, motivation, or style with visual art?

Author(s)
Jon O. Lauring, Tomohiro Ishizu, Hana Hollá Kutliková, Felix Dörflinger, Steven Haugbol, Helmut Leder, Ron Kupers, Matthew Pelowski
Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a devastating diagnosis with, however, potential for an extremely intriguing aesthetic component. Despite motor and cognitive deficits, an emerging collection of studies report a burst of visual artistic output and alterations in produced art in a subgroup of patients. This provides a unique window into the neurophysiological bases for why and how we might create and enjoy visual art, as well as into general brain function and the nature of PD or other neurodegenerative diseases. However, there has not been a comprehensive organization of literature on this topic. Nor has there been an attempt to connect case evidence and knowledge on PD with present understanding of visual art making in psychology and neuroaesthetics in order to propose hypotheses for documented artistic changes. Here, we collect the current research on this topic, tie this to PD symptoms and neurobiology, and provide new theories focusing on dopaminergic neuron damage, over-stimulation from dopamine agonist therapy, and context or genetic factors revealing the neurobiological basis of the visual artistic brain.

Organisation(s)
Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology
External organisation(s)
University of Copenhagen, University College London, Copenhagen University Hospital
Journal
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Volume
100
Pages
129-165
No. of pages
37
ISSN
0149-7634
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.12.016
Publication date
05-2019
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
501030 Cognitive science, 501001 General psychology, 501011 Cognitive psychology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Behavioral Neuroscience
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/why-would-parkinsons-disease-lead-to-sudden-changes-in-creativity-motivation-or-style-with-visual-art(7a5e5fa1-6c32-43f2-964a-7cbd8445f15c).html