A Study on the Role of Art Therapy and Neuroimaging in Treatment of Alzheimer

In recent years, the importance of art therapy has been increasing, and neuroscientists began to study to figure out how art therapy, or neuroaesthetics works. Through neuroscience, researchers are attempting to find specific areas of the brain or activity patterns that may be caused exclusively by art-making. Using tools such as functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI), that shows different activated areas and functions of the brain, studies were conducted by observing the brain activity that goes on while either creating artworks, or while viewing art. Case study examples involved in expressing and reflecting art, and activating different areas and functions of the brain are illustrated for the two different groups in art therapy; active visual art production group and art evaluation group. In this research, computational histogram analysis was carried out for the two groups of images obtained by fMRI. The study of Alzheimer’s disease was incorporated along with the study of art therapy in this paper, because studies have uncovered that artistic skills help patients suffering from Alzheimer’s to communicate and express themselves.