Psychologist Dr. Alex Forsythe from the University Essays

Psychologist Dr. Alex Forsythe from the University of liverpool School of Psychology and her team examined paintings from the careers of seven famous artists. These artists experienced both normal aging and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases and some with no recorded neurodegenerative disorders. Throughout the study they inspected and reviewed 2,000 painting searching for patterns and clues to point out obvious signs of deteration in skills over time. The study showed clear patterns of changes in the paintings different artists who suffered neurological deterioration from those aging normally. Some were obvious others not so much. According to Dr. Forsythe, "art has long been embraced by psychologists as an effective method of improving the quality of life for those persons living with cognitive disorders. We have built on this tradition by unpicking artists 'handwriting' through the analysis of their individual connection with the brush and paint. This process offers the potential for the detection of emerging neurological problems. We hope that our innovation may open up new research directions that will help to diagnose neurological disease in the early stages." I believe this is a possible way to help with diagnosing of neurodegenitive disorders but would be hesitant to follow this due to the inability to be certain that the patterns follow to trend. The only paintings they studied were famous well-known paintings. What about the other less known paintings the only way to be sure is to use the full portfolio of each painters paintings.