I watched a really fascinating short documentary recently about art therapy with dementia sufferers. I am training to become a clinical arts therapist and seeing how art works with various demographics is always really cool.
'A Brain Experiencing Dementia' 2017 original
This short quote is taken directly from the article and video: “Dementia is a terrible disorder,” says Associate Professor Olivier Piguet from Neuroscience Research Australia.
“There is a progressive loss of nerve cells and at the moment there is nothing to stop this process.
“If we look at the analogy of an orchestra, the frontal lobes being the conductor, your conductor is becoming less efficient. Part of the orchestra is starting to play different tunes.”
This analogy of a brain being affected by dementia really captured my imagination.
Here, I have created the confused and nonsensical conductor (or the frontal lobe, which is the yellow part of the brain perched on his shower cap) who is sending his musicians (the rest of the brain) either to sleep or causing them to play awfully out of tune with each other.
Dementia is a horrible disease to experience but this analogy gives us some basic understanding of what the brain is actually doing. And it's wonderful that art can put a pause on or alleviate some of the distress that this disease creates.