The Art Of Dementia

Jancy Chang was a talented artist and teacher, and only in her 40s, when the symptoms of dementia began to appear. She had a rare form of progressive aphasia that would sap her language skills and force her to retire from teaching at 52. But even as she was losing the ability to make lesson plans, grade homework or remember the names of her students, her artistic vision seemed to be expanding (see right). "Her painting became wilder and freer and more original as her language declined," says Dr. Bruce Miller, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco, who is the lead author of a report on Chang's case in the current issue of Neurology.

Although the mechanism is not clear, it appears that in this type of dementia, language is not required for — and may even inhibit — certain types of visual creativity. "We typically don't think that something could be getting better," says Miller. Chang's experience underscores the fact that dementia is rarely a simple, one-dimensional disease. It also reminds us to treasure what is spared.