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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : July 15, 2014 3:53 PM IST
If you are in a creative profession, Parkinson's may be a blessing in disguise as researchers have found that patients of the nerve cells disease in the area of brain are more creative than their healthy peers. Those Parkinson's patients taking higher doses of medication are more artistic than their less-medicated counterparts, the study added. 'It began with my observation that Parkinson's patients have a special interest in art and have creative hobbies incompatible with their physical limitations,' said Rivka Inzelberg, professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel.
For the study, the researchers conducted tests on 27 Parkinson's patients treated with anti-Parkinson's drugs and 27 age and education-matched healthy controls. The tests included the Verbal Fluency exam, in which a person is asked to mention as many different words beginning with a certain letter and in a certain category (fruit, for example) as possible. The participants were then asked to undergo a more challenging Remote Association Test, in which they had to name a fourth word (following three given words) within a fixed context. (Read: Want to keep Parkinson's away? Eat berries)
The groups also took the Tel Aviv University Creativity Test, which tested their interpretation of abstract images and assessed the imagination inherent in answers to questions like 'What can you do with sandals?' The final exam was a version of the Test for a Novel Metaphor, adapted specifically for the study. Throughout the testing, Parkinson's patients offered more original answers and more thoughtful interpretations than their healthier counterparts. (Read: Stimulated reality can help Parkinson's patients clear the fog)
In order to rule out the possibility that the creative process evident in the hobbies of patients was linked to obsessive compulsions like gambling and hoarding, to which many Parkinson's patients fall prey, participants were also asked to fill out an extensive questionnaire. An analysis indicated no correlation between compulsive behaviour and elevated creativity. The study appeared in the journal Annals of Neurology. (Read: Scientists develop compound to fight Parkinson's)
What is Parkinson's disease?
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder and affects nerve cells which are responsible for motor functions of the body. Parkinson's patients have difficulty in carrying out movements at a normal speed. Hence, they take longer to perform even normal day-to-day activities.
Parkinson's disease is found mainly in people over the age of 50 years and prevails in both the sexes. But if you consider the Indian statistics, it is more common in females than in males.
What causes Parkinson's disease?
People with Parkinson's disease suffer loss of nerve cells in the brain that are responsible for releasing a brain chemical or neurotransmitter called dopamine. Dopamine is a signalling chemical required for coordination and control of body movements. Once the neurons start dying, the production of dopamine is reduced causing loss of movement control and coordination in people suffering from the condition. But what exactly triggers death of those neurons is still a mystery. Scientists have found out several genes that were responsible for causing the disease in some cases.
Large population studies have indicated that people who have a family member or a relative suffering from the disease have a higher chance of developing the condition themselves. However, this is just an observation and further research on the inheritance aspect of Parkinson's disease is underway.
What are the signs and symptoms of Parkinson's disease?
In Parkinson's disease the basic characteristic symptoms are those of tremors (trembling or shaking), stiffness, and slowness of movement, these are called motor symptoms. The non-motor symptoms might include difficulties in maintaining posture and balance, soft speech, problems with urinating, slow bowel movements and sleep disturbances. A characteristic of Parkinson's is that the symptoms can change from day to day and sometimes even from hour to hour. Read more about Parkinson's disease Causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment
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