Some Parkinson’s Disease patients can suddenly become creative when they
take dopamine therapy, producing pictures, sculptures, novels and
poetry. But their new-found interests can become so overwhelming that
they ignore other aspects of their everyday life, such as daily chores
and social activities, according to research published in the March
issue of the European Journal of Neurology.
Italian researchers studied 36 patients with Parkinson’s Disease - 18
with increased artistic production and 18 without - and compared them
with 36 healthy controls without Parkinson’s. None of the patients had
engaged in artistic hobbies before they took dopamine.
“Patients were included in the artistic group if they started working on
creative projects for two or more hours a day after starting taking
dopamine” explains lead author Dr Margherita Canesi, a neurological
specialist at the Centro Parkinson e Disordini del Movimento in Milan.
“Our findings suggest that the patients’ newly acquired artistic skills
were probably there all along, but did not start to emerge until they
took the dopamine therapy. They did not appear to be connected with
abnormal repetitive behaviours, such as impulse control disorders or
punding - stereotyped behavior characterised by an intense fascination
with a complex, excessive, non-goal oriented, repetitive activity.
“Other researchers have noted that altered creative drive has been
observed in patients who have neurodegenerative diseases or have had a
stroke. However the anatomical and physiological understanding of
creativity is difficult to establish and quantify.”
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and
pleasure centres. It helps to regulate movement and emotional responses
and enables people to see rewards and work towards them. Parkinson’s
Disease is caused by dopamine deficiency and using medication to
increase dopamine levels in the brain is one of the most popular kinds
of therapy.
Key findings of the study included:
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The artwork presented by the patients was mainly drawings/paintings
(83%), poetry/novels (50%) and sculpture (28%). In 78% of cases, the
patients showed more than one skill, normally writing plus painting or
drawing.
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Some of the patients produced art that was sold and books that were
published, but, at the other end of the scale, some of the creative
work was of a very poor quality.
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By using the Torrence Test of Creative Thinking to compare the three
groups, the researchers showed that the artistic Parkinson’s Disease
patients had similar overall and individual scores to the healthy
controls. However the non-artistic patients had significantly lower
overall scores than the healthy controls and significantly lower
scores than the artistic patients when it came to the elaboration
sub-score.
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There was no correlation between the Torrence Test of Creative
Thinking scores and the scores obtained using the Barratt Impulsivity
Scale, one of the oldest and most widely used measures of impulsive
personality traits.
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The researchers also used the Minnesota Impulsive Disorders Interview.
This showed that one creative patient was positive for compulsive
sexual behaviour, one creative patient for compulsive buying and two
creative and three non-creative patients for pathological gambling.
However, there was little difference in the Torrence scores for
patients who tested positive or negative on the Minnesota scale.
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None of the patients or healthy controls displayed the stereotyped
behaviour measured by the Punding Rating Scale.
“In conclusion, we found that newly acquired creative drive in patients
with Parkinson’s Disease, after the introduction of dopaminergic
therapy, is not related to impulsivity or impulse control disorders as
measured by the Barratt Impulsivity Scale or the Minnesota Impulsive
Disorders Interview” says Dr Canesi.
“We believe that their desire to be creative could represent emerging
innate skills, possibly linked to repetitive and reward-seeking
behaviours. Further studies are needed to support our preliminary
observations.”
The paper is free online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-1331.2011.03546.x/pdf
