Dahlia W. Zaidel.  Neuropsychology of art: Neurological, cognitive, and evolutionary perspectives. Hove, UK: Psychology Press, 2005 (October)

 

                  CONTENTS

PREFACE

 

CHAPTER 1:  Approaches to the neuropsychology of art

            Introduction

            Definitions and purpose of art

            Multiple components of art and brain damage in established artists

            Visual arts, perception, and neuropsychology

            Color, art, and neuropsychology

            Music and the brain

            Art, creativity, and the brain

            Beginnings of human art

            Beauty in art and brain evolution

            Language lateralization and disorders of language (aphasia)

            The arts, language, and hemispheric specialization

            Talent and sensory deficits as clues to the neuropsychology of art

            Summary

Further readings

 

CHAPTER 2: The effects of brain damage in established visual artists

            Introduction

            I.          Art production following left hemisphere damage

            II.           Art production following right hemisphere damage

            III.       Slow brain diseases

                                    Parkinson's Disease

                                    Dementia

                                    Corticobasal degeneration

                                    Alzheimer's Disease

                                    Progressive aphasia in fronto-temporal dementia

                                    Dementia with Lewy bodies

            Summary

Further Readings

 

CHAPTER 3: The eye and brain in artist and viewer: Alterations in vision and color perception

Introduction

I.          Localization of color processing: Effects of damage

Color in the brain

Achromatopsia and hemiachromatopsia: Hue discrimination impairment

Acquired central dyschromatopsia

The case of an art professor

An artist with color agnosia

II.        Health status of the eyes in visual artists

Color deficiency and color blindness

Specialized neural cells in the retina

Visual pathways and the two visual half fields

Brightness in paintings

Color and light in the art of film

What compromises colors in the eye of artist and viewer

Cataracts and consequences to clarity and colors

Dopamine and colors

III.       Specific established artists with compromised vision

Camille Pissarro

Claude Monet

Paul Cezanne

Edgar Degas

Wassily Kandinsky

Vincent van Gogh's colors

Francisco Goya's illness

Summary

Further Readings

 

CHAPTER 4: Special visual artists: The effects of autism and slow brain atrophy on art production

Introduction

            I.          Unusual artists

                                    Savant visual artists

                                    Comparison to musical savants

                                    Fronto-temporal dementia (FTD)

             II.       Slow brain alterations

                                    Slow brain changes and effects on art: Serial lesion effects

                                    Functional reorganization

            Summary

Further Readings

 

CHAPTER 5:  Musical art and brain damage: I. Established composers

            Introduction

            I.          Composers and slow brain disease 

                                    The case of Maurice Ravel

                                    Localization and further discussion of Ravel

                                    The case of Hugo Wolf

                                    French composer M. M.                                

            II.        Composers and localized damage due to stroke

                                    Vissarion  G. Shebalin

                                    Jean Langlais

                                    Benjamin Britten

                                    American composer B. L.

            III.       The case of George Gershwin

            IV.       Effects of syphilis on brains of composers

                                    Robert Schumann

                                    Bedrich Smetana

                                    Franz Schubert

                                    Ludwig van Beethoven

            Summary

Further Readings

 

CHAPTER 6:  Musical art and brain damage. II.  Performing and listening to music

            Introduction

            Art of music and language

            Amusia and the art of music

            Music localization in the brain

            Melodies and the role of musical training

            Unilateral brain damage in trained musicians

            The neuropsychology of singing

            Brain representation of musicians' hands

            Music brain activation in fMRI and PET studies

            Summary

Further Readings

 

CHAPTER 7: Artists and viewers: Components of perception and cognition in visual art

            Introduction

            Art, perceptual constancy, and canonical views

            Hemispheric categorization and perspective views in pictures

            Unilateral damage and pictorial object recognition

            Disembedding in pictures and the left hemisphere

            Figure-ground visual search in art works

            Global-local, wholes, and details in art works

            Unconscious influences on perception of art works

            Right hemisphere specialization and representation of space

            Depth perception in pictures

            Convergent and linear perspective in the history of art

            Summary

Further Readings

 

CHAPTER 8:  Neuropsychological considerations of drawing and seeing pictures

            Introduction

            Handedness in artists

            Drawings and the parietal lobes

            Drawings in neurological patients

            Hemi-neglect and attention

            Pictorial scenes: Simultanagnosia

            Scenes, eye movements, and the frontal eye fields

            Summary

Further Readings

 

CHAPTER 9: Beauty, pleasure, and emotions: Reactions to art works

            Introduction

            I.          Beauty and aesthetics

                                    Alterations in aesthetic preference following brain damage

                                    Brain activity and aesthetics

                                    Aesthetics, the oblique effects, and properties of the visual cortex

                                    Left-right perception and aesthetic preference in pictures

                                    Hemispheric aesthetic preference

                                    Beauty as an emergent property of art

                                    Biological nature of beauty in faces 

                                    Painted portraiture

                                    Facial asymmetry and art

                                    Beauty in colors: The film      

            II.        Neuropsychology and emotional reactions to art

                                    Emotions of the creating artist

                                    Pleasure and the reward system

                                    Emotional reactions in the brain to films

                                    Hemispheric laterality of emotions

            Summary

Further Readings

 

CHAPTER 10:  Human brain evolution, biology and the early emergence of art

            Introduction

            I.          Biology and display of art

                        Biology: Roots of exhibiting talent and skills

                        Biology: Pleasure of art

            II.        Visual arts

                                    Initial appearance of many artistic productions

                                    Art as an extension of clever survival strategies

                                    Fortuitous juxtaposition of early conditions

                                    Safety and comfortable time for visual art creations

            III.       Origins of music in human brain evolution

                                    Music as a communicative tool

                                    Mimicry of animal sounds, deception, and language

                                    Innate reactions to music

            IV.       Symbolic nature of art and language

                                    Language and art

                                    Evolution of language development: Some issues and speculations

                                    Written pictures

                                    Specific archaeological finds

            Summary

Further Readings

 

CHAPTER 11: Further considerations in the neuropsychology of art

            Introduction

            I.          Talent and creativity

                                    Creativity in art

                                    Imagery

                                    Neuropsychology of creativity           

                                    Language and creativity: Clues from frontotemporal dementia

                                    Left hemisphere creativity: Clues from autistic savants

                                    Neurotransmitters: Clues from Parkinson's Disease treatment

            II.        Complexities of visual art

                                    Lessons from brain damage in artists

                                    Art in human existence

            Summary

Further Readings

 

CHAPTER 12: Conclusion and the future of the neuropsychology of art

 

 

GLOSSARY

REFERENCES

AUTHOR INDEX 

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