Creativity and Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

The study of creativity, located at the crossroads of cognitive, neurological and psychological processes, is complex and requires a pluridisciplinary and multimodal approach. Parkinson’s disease (PD) enables us to look at creativity under a new perspective and contributes to a better understanding of the neuronal mechanisms and pathways underlying creative behaviour. Patient’s case reports provide an insight into possible changes in creative behaviour in the course of the disease and how it is influenced by neuropsychiatric symptoms like impulse control disorders or apathy. A potential link to hallucinations is also suggested based on a phenomenon called pareidolia, which is currently explored using a task evoking illusory perception of patterns in natural landscapes and structures. Furthermore, the changes in creative behaviour, modulated by dopaminergic medication and deep brain stimulation, two main treatment forms of PD, are recently of particular interest in literature. It is mainly assumed that an increase in medication intake leads to an exacerbation, while a reduction of intake, for instance after a deep brain stimulation surgery, shows a decrease of creative behaviour. The use of neuropsychological assessments, using different well established and also newer tasks, have also become increasingly significant to further explore relevant cognitive processes, such as divergent thinking or fluency.