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NEUROLOGY 1998;51:978-982
© 1998 American Academy of Neurology

Emergence of artistic talent in frontotemporal dementia

B. L. Miller, MD, J. Cummings, MD, F. Mishkin, MD, K. Boone, PhD, F. Prince, PhD, M. Ponton, PhD and C. Cotman, PhD

From the Departments of Neurology (Drs. Miller and Cummings), Radiology (Dr. Mishkin), and Psychiatry (Drs. Boone and Ponton), University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine; and the Department of Psychobiology (Dr. Cotman), University of California at Irvine, CA. F. Prince is in private practice.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Bruce Miller, Professor of Neurology UCSF/Mt. Zion Hospital, 1600 Divisadero, Room 663, San Francisco, CA 94115.

Objective: To describe the clinical, neuropsychological, and imaging features of five patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) who acquired new artistic skills in the setting of dementia.

Background: Creativity in the setting of dementia has recently been reported. We describe five patients who became visual artists in the setting of FTD.

Methods: Sixty-nine FTD patients were interviewed regarding visual abilities. Five became artists in the early stages of FTD. Their history, artistic process, neuropsychology, and anatomy are described.

Results: On SPECT or pathology, four of the five patients had the temporal variant of FTD in which anterior temporal lobes are involved but the dorsolateral frontal cortex is spared. Visual skills were spared but language and social skills were devastated.

Conclusions: Loss of function in the anterior temporal lobes may lead to the "facilitation" of artistic skills. Patients with the temporal lobe variant of FTD offer a window into creativity.

Supported by the University of California Los Angeles Alzheimer Disease Center AG-10123, the Christine Risse Award, and the Sidell-Kagan Research Foundation through the University of California Los Angeles Medical School.

Received November 5, 1997. Accepted in final form June 5, 1998.






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