Neuropsychology of Visual Art. From the Work of Art Diagnosis to the Diagnosis of the Artist
Neuropsychologia sztuki wizualnej. Od diagnozy dzieła do diagnozy artysty

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31648/hip.322

About author

Piotr Markiewicz
Warmia and Mazury University w Olsztynie 
Voivodship Specialistic Hospital in Olsztyn

Key words

neuropsychology, brain, visual art, cerebrovascular accident, dementia

Abstract

CNS lesions of different etiologies are often associated with following changes in cognitive, emotional and motor skills. This also refers to individuals involved in creating works of art, either vocationally or as non-professional activity. This implies the question of the nature of changes of artistic style after a neurologic episode and neuronal correlates of these changes. Neuropsychology is one of disciplines among these concerned with the empirical study of changes in artistic style after a neurologic episode. No coherent neuropsychological paradigm enabling the assessment of artistic expression change following brain injury has evolved. Subjective analyses of the artistic changes predominate. This research area remains rather vague. There are no satisfactory reflections over essential questions regarding the nature of relationship between damaged brain and artistic behaviors. This article presents a critical analysis of the “medical conception” which states that a single piece of art allows the diagnosis of any pathology, e.g. brain pathology. Also, a relatively consistent and pertinent research methodology in the assessment of changes in artistic style after brain injury, is proposed. Finally, a review of current key research trends, results of studies in the neuropsychology of visual art are accompanied by the critical analysis of a standard study design evaluating the quantitative and qualitative aspects of changes in the artistic style following CNS damage.

Full Text (PDF)

References

• Annoni J.M., Devuyst G., Carota A., Bruggimann L., Bogousslavsky, Changes in artistic style after minor posterior stroke, „Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry” 2005, nr 76(6), s. 797–803.
• Anstis, S.M., Was El Greco astigmatic?, „Leonardo” 2002, nr 35(2), s. 208.
• Appenzeller O., Stevens J.M., Kruszynski R., Walker S., Neurology in ancient faces, „Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry” 2001, nr 70(4), s. 524–529.
• Berti A., Cappa S.F., Folegatti A., Spatial representations, distortions and alterations in the graphic and artistic production of brain-damaged patients and of famous artists, „Functional Neurology” 2007, nr 22(4), s. 243–256.
• Bianucci R., Perciaccante A., Appenzeller O., Boy with cortical visual impairment and unilateral hemiparesis in Jeff Huntington’s “Slip”, „Journal of the Neurological Sciences” 2011, nr 370, s. 45–46.
• Bianucci R., Marias F.F., Appenzeller O., El Greco depicted his own neurological disabilities, „Journal of the Neurological Sciences” 2017, nr 375, s. 478.
• Bianucci R., Marias F.F., Appenzeller O., Historical evidence supports El Greco’s depiction of a neurological condition in his attributed self-portrait, „Journal of the Neurological Sciences” 2017, nr 372, s. 316–317.
• Bogousslavsky J., Boller F. (red.), Neurological disorders in famous artists, „Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience”, vol. 19, Karger, Basel 2005.
• Bogousslavsky J., Hennerici M.G. (red.), Neurological disorders in famous artists – part 2, „Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience”, t. 22, Karger, Basel 2007.
• Budrys V., Skullerud K., Petroska D., Lengveniene J., Kaubrys G., Dementia and art: Neuronal intermediate filament inclusion disease and dissolution of artistic creativity, „European Neurology” 2007, nr 57 (3), s. 137–144.
• Chatterjee A., Neuroaesthetics. Growing pains of a new discipline, (w:) A.P. Shimamura, S.E. Palmer (red.), Aesthetic science. Connecting minds, brains, and experience, Oxford University Press, New York 2012, s. 299–317.
• Chatterjee A., Widick P., Sternschein R., Smith II W.B., Bromberger B., The assessment of art attributes, “Empirical Studies of the Arts” 2010, nr 28(2), s. 207–222.
• Chatterjee A., Bromberger B., Smith II W.B., Sternschein R., Widick P., Artistic production following brain damage: A study of three artists, „Leonardo” 2011, nr 44 (5), s. 405–410.
• Crutch S.J., Isaacs R., Rossor M.N., Some workmen can blame their tools: artistic change in an individual with Alzheimer’s disease, „Lancet” 2001, nr 357, s. 2129–2133.
• Drago V., Crucian G.P., Foster P.S., Cheong J., Finney G.R., Pisani F., Heilman K.M., Lewy body dementia and creativity: case report, „Neuropsychologia” 2006, nr 44(14), s. 3011–3015.
• Fisman-Kleiner G., Black S.E., Lang A.E., Neurodegenerative disease and the evolution of art: The effects of presumed corticobasal degeneration in a professional artist, „Movement Disorders” 2003, nr 18(3), s. 294–302.
• Fornazzari L.R., Preserved painting creativity in artists with Alzheimer’s disease, „European Journal of Neurology” 2005, nr 12(6), s. 419–424.
• Forsythe A., Nadal M., Sheehy N., Cela-Conde C.J., Sawey M., Predicting beauty: Fractal dimension and visual complexity in art, „British Journal of Psychology” 2011, nr 102, s. 49–70.
• orsythe A., Williams T., Reilly R.G., What paint can tell us: A fractal analysis of neurological changes in seven artists, „Neuropsychology” 2017, nr 31(1), s. 1–10.
• Frigg R., Howard C., Fact and fiction in the neuropsychology of art, (w:) E. Schellekens, P. Goldie (red.), The aesthetic mind: philosophy and psychology, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2011, s. 54–70.
• Habe K., Neuropsychology of music – a rapidly growing branch of psychology, „Horizons of Psychology” 2010, nr 19(1), s. 79–98.
• Kapur N., Paradoxical functional facilitation in brain-behaviour research. A critical review, „Brain” 1996, nr 119 (5), s. 1775–1790.
• Kwoczyński J., The figures in El Greco’s paintings have signs of Marfan’s syndrome, „Kardiologia Polska” 2006, nr 64, s. 1214–1220.
• Laios K., Moschos M.M., Androutsos G., Human anatomy in the painting of Dominikos Theotokopoulos – El Greco (1541–1614), „Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology” 2017, nr 122 (1), s. 1–7.
• Lythgoe M.F., Pollak T.A., Kalmus M., Haan M. de, Chong W.K., Obsessive, prolific artistic output following subarachnoid hemorrhage, „Neurology” 2005, nr 64 (2), s. 397–398.
• Markiewicz P., Neuronalne korelaty amuzji, (w:) M. Bogucki, A. Foltyn, P. Podlipniak, P. Przybysz, H. Winiszewska (red.), Neuroestetyka muzyki, Wyd. Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk, Poznań 2013, s. 227–246.
• Mazzucchi A., Sinforiani E., Boller F., Focal cerebral lesions and painting abilities, (w:) S. Finger, D.W. Zaidel, F. Boller, J. Bogousslavsky (red.), The fine arts, neurology, and neuroscience, „Progress in Brain Research”, vol. 204, Elsevier, Amsterdam 2013), s. 71–98.
• Mell J.C., Howard S.M., Miller B.L., Art and the brain: The influence of frontotemporal dementia on an accomplished artist, „Neurology” 2003, nr 60(10), s. 1707–1710.
• Mendez M.F., Perryman K.M., Disrupted facial empathy in drawings from artists with frontotemporal dementia, „Neurocase” 2003, nr 9(1), s. 44–50.
• Miller B.L., Ponton M., Benson D.F., Cummings J.L., Mena I., Enhanced artistic creativity with temporal lobe degeneration, „Lancet” 1996, nr 348 (9043), s. 1744–1755.
• Miller B.L., Cummings J., Mishkin F., Boone K., Prince F., Ponton M., Cotman C., Emergence of artistic talent in frontotemporal dementia, „Neurology” 1998, nr 51(4), s. 978–982.
• Miller B.L., Boone K., Cummings J., Read S.L., Mishkin F., Functional correlates of musical and visual talent in frontotemporal dementia, „British Journal of Psychiatry” 2000, nr 176(5), s. 458–463.
• Miller Z.A., Miller B.L., A cognitive behavioral neurological approach to aesthetics, (w:) A.P. Shimamura, S.E. Palmer (red.), Aesthetic science. Connecting minds, brains, and experience, Oxford University Press, New York 2012, s. 356–374.
• Petcu E.B., Sherwood K., Popa-Wagner A., Buga A.M., Aceti L., Miroiu R.I., Artistic skills recovery and compensation in visual artists after stroke, „Frontiers in Neurology” 2016, nr 7(76), s. 1–12.
• Przybysz P., Markiewicz P., Neuroestetyka. Przegląd zagadnień i kierunków badań, (w:) P. Francuz (red.), Na ścieżkach neuronauki, Wyd. KUL, Lublin 2010, s. 109–149.
• Ramachandran V.S., Hirstein W., Nauka wobec zagadnienia sztuki. Neurologiczna teoria doświadczenia estetycznego, (w:) A. Klawiter, W. Dziarnowska (red.), Studia z kognitywistyki i filozofii umysłu, Zysk i S-ka, Poznań 2006, s. 327–364.
• Santos-Bueso E., Arteaga-Sánchez A., Porta-Etessam J., Vinuesa-Silva J.M., García--Sánchez J., Wrong diagnosis in the supposed self-portrait of El Greco, „Journal of the Neurological Sciences” 2017, nr 375, s. 476–477.
• Schott G.D., Pictures as a neurological tool: Lessons from enhanced and emergent artistry in brain disease, „Brain” 2012, nr 135(6), s. 1947–1963.
• Seeley W.W., Matthews B.R., Crawford R.K., Gorno-Tempini M.L., Foti D., Mackenzie I.R., Miller B.L., Unravelling Boléro: progressive aphasia, transmodal creativity and the right posterior neocortex, „Brain” 2008, nr 131(1), s. 39–49.
• Souza L.C. de, Guimarães H.C., Teixeira A.L., Caramelli P., Levy R., Dubois B., Volle E., Frontal lobe neurology and the creative mind, „Frontiers in Psychology” 2016, nr 5(761), s. 1–21.
• Takahata K., Saito F., Muramatsu T., Yamada M., Shirahase J., Tabuchi H., Suhara T., Mimura M., Kato M., Emergence of realism: Enhanced visual artistry and high accuracy of visual numerosity representation after left prefrontal damage, „Neuropsychologia” 2014, nr 57(1), s. 38–49.
• Taylor R.P., Micolich A.P., Jonas D., Fractal analysis of Pollock’s drip paintings, „Nature” 1999, nr 399, s. 422.
• Taylor R.P., Guzman R., Martin T.P., Hall G.D.R., Micolich A.P., Jonas D., Scannell B.C., Fairbanks M.S., Marlow C.A., Authenticating Pollock paintings using fractal geometry, „Pattern Recognition Letters” 2007, nr 28 (6), s. 695–702.
• Thomas-Anterion C., Creac’h C., Dionet E., Borg C., Extier C., Faillenot I., Peyron R., De novo artistic activity following insular–SII ischemia, „Pain” 2010, nr 150(1), s. 121–127.
• Viskontas I.V., Miller B.L., Paradoxical creativity and adjustment in neurological condition, (w:) N. Kapur i in., The paradoxical brain, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011, s. 221–233.
• Witt K., Krack P., Deushl G., Change in artistic expresion related to subthalamic stimulation, „Journal of Neurology” 2006, nr 253 (7), s. 955–956.
• Zaidel D.W., Neuropsychology of art neurological, cognitive, and evolutionary perspectives, Psychology Press, New York 2005.
• Zeki S., The Woodhull Lecture 1995: Visual art and the visual brain, „Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain” 1997, nr 68, s. 29–63.