Brain and Art

This book analyzes and discusses in detail art therapy, a specific tool used to sustain health in affective developments, rehabilitation, motor skills and cognitive functions. Art therapy is based on the assumption that the process of making art (music, dance, painting) sparks emotions and enhances brain activity. Art therapy is used to encourage personal growth, facilitate particular brain areas or activity patterns, and improve neural connectivity. Treating neurological diseases using artistic strategies offers us a unique option for engaging brain structural networks that enhance the brain’s ability to form new connections. Based on brain plasticity, art therapy has the potential to increase our repertoire for treating neurological diseases. Neural substrates are the basis of complex emotions relative to art experiences, and involve a widespread activation of cognitive and motor systems. Accordingly, art therapy has the capacity to modulate behavior, cognition, attention and movement. In this context, art therapy can offer effective tools for improving general well-being, quality of life and motivation in connection with neurological diseases.The book discusses art therapy as a potential group of techniques for the treatment of neurological disturbances and approaches the relationship between humanistic disciplines and neurology from a holistic perspective, reflecting the growing interest in this interconnection.

Dr. Bruno Colombo, Head of the Headache Center, University Vita-Salute, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan (Italy), has been Coordinator of the Headache and Migraine Centers at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan since 2008, having previously worked as a neurologist at the same facility and as a clinical assistant and research worker at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and St. Bartholomew’s College of Medicine, London, UK. He is a Temporary Professor of Neurology at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan; furthermore, he has played a major role in the field of headache and migraine research, being co-founder of ANIRCEF (the Italian Neurological Society for the Study of Headaches). Founder of the Italian Headache Foundation (FICEF), he is the author or co-author of more than 150 publications and his interests include brain functional activity in headaches, vestibular migraines, and art and neurology.