Abstract

MATALLANA, Diana  and  MONTANES, Patricia. Dementia and Creativity: The Emergence of Pictorial Activity in a Patient with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 2010, vol.39, n.1, pp.211-223. ISSN 0034-7450.

Introduction: Patients with syndromes that involve fronto-temporal areas have developed occasionally, either an interest in art or an emergence of creative pictorial activity not present before the disease. Objective: We present the case of a 66 year-old woman who had no premorbid artistic ability but started to paint at the age of 56, before the onset of behavioral and expressive language impairment. Marked deterioration of language and behavior progressed to primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a subtype of FTD, and this unusual talent became the first symptom of the disease. Design: Case study. Results: The neuropsychological, behavioral, and brain image results are discussed, and some examples of the oil pictures are shown. Conclusion: The cognitive process associated with the emergence of creativity in PPA is called paradoxical functional facilitation, and might be related to dominant anterior temporal lobe pathology that enhances posterior brain activity. Future efforts to comprehend the appearance of such an unusual talent frame this case study

Keywords : primary progressive aphasia; fronto-temporal dementia.

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