Parkinson's disease and visual creativity

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22008870

J Neurol. 2011 Oct 19. [Epub ahead of print]
Art and Parkinson's disease: a dramatic change in an artist's style as an initial symptom.
Shimura H, Tanaka R, Urabe T, Tanaka S, Hattori N.
Source
Department of Neurology, Juntendo University Urayasu Hospital, 2-1-1 Tomioka, Urayasu, Chiba, 113-8421, Japan, hshimura@juntendo-urayasu.jp.

Abstract
In Parkinson's disease (PD), nonmotor symptoms manifest before motor symptoms. In this report, we present a remarkable case of a semiprofessional painter with PD whose painting style dramatically changed from abstract painting to realism before he developed motor, psychiatric, and autonomic nerve disorders. This case suggests that certain types of visual creativity may be impaired in the very early, presymptomatic stages of PD.