Emergence of Visual and Musical Artistic Talent in Dementia

Introduction

De Novo emergence refers to the manifestation of new artistic abilities in individuals with dementia. This project aims to address the knowledge gaps in our emerging understanding of this phenomenon. While these “de novo” expressions have been documented, the underlying neurobiological and cognitive mechanisms remain unclear. The project aims to develop a comprehensive, trans-disciplinary framework that explains how neuroplasticity, multi-sensory integration, and dopaminergic processes contribute to the emergence of artistic expression, with implications for advancing brain health research and creative therapeutic approaches.

Scope 

This study develops a novel explanatory framework to understand the emergence of new visual and musical artistic abilities in individuals with dementia. Researchers are currently working on synthesizing existing empirical and theoretical literature, and proposing a “bridging framework” that integrates paradoxical functional facilitation (PFF), cross-modal plasticity, and dopaminergic neural mechanisms.

The approach combines insights from case studies, neuroimaging research, and computational modeling to examine how changes in brain function may support creative expression. The framework conceptualizes artistic emergence as a dynamic, adaptive process shaped by interactions between stimulus-driven and goal-directed behaviors, as well as environmental, emotional, and cognitive factors.

The project is contextualized within broader challenges in dementia research, including limited neural-level data, methodological inconsistencies, and insufficient attention to life history and socioeconomic factors. It advocates for a transdisciplinary research agenda incorporating neuroscience, creative arts therapies, and computational modeling.

Insights and Deliverables

This project will generate both conceptual and practical contributions to the field of arts, neuroscience, and dementia research. Anticipated outputs include:

• A comprehensive theoretical framework that integrates neural, cognitive, and behavioral mechanisms underlying the de novo emergence of artistic abilities, to address key gaps in current research, particularly the lack of integration between biological, psychological, and environmental factors.
• A synthesis of existing literature that highlights the role of neuroplasticity, multisensory integration, and dopaminergic modulation in enabling compensatory brain adaptations that may foster new creative expression.
• A peer-reviewed research article, with conceptual models and diagrams (e.g., neural and computational frameworks), and recommendations for future interdisciplinary research.

The research team also hopes to provide guidance for creative arts therapies and non-pharmacological interventions aimed at improving wellbeing in people living with dementia. Longer-term, the framework may inform the development of assessment tools and intervention strategies that harness artistic expression for brain health and care.

Project Team

The research team is led by Dr. Radwa Khalil, an interdisciplinary neuroscientist at Constructor University in Germany, with support from Lab affiliated researcher Agustin Ibañez from the Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat) at Universidad Adolfo Ibañez (Chile), and Lab co-director Dr. Nisha Sajnani. The team also consists of researchers from the International Institute for Brain Health (Croatia), the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and Trinity College Dublin (Ireland).