Can Work Play a Role in Secondary Stroke Prevention: A Case Report

Art is a human activity, and an integral part of the culture’s predominant mode of conceptual or symbolic construction. Except that, art, especially painting, is a perfect fi eld for studying neurological processes through which the brain recognizes the beauty of a work of art, and is one expression of the most brain variability. Painting is only one expression of a basic artistic branch that appears in the interests and preoccupations of culture and in its multiple cognitive endeavors. Visual art is a product of the visual brain with its orientation-selective cells which respond selectively to straight lines and are widely thought to be the neural “building blocks” of form perception. During ischemic stroke, diminished blood fl ow initiates a series of events that may result in additional, delayed damage to brain cells. Early medical intervention can halt this process and reduce the risk for irreversible complications. Th is paper demonstrates how brain lesions at the onset of the illness and aft er stroke may aff ect profoundly the artistic style. Th e artist continued with his work for the next twenty years aft er stroke, but with a diff erent artistic style and without repeated cerebrovascular accidents. Visual art contributes to our understanding of the visual brain because it explores and reveals the brain’s perceptual capabilities.