AATA Review: EEG use during Art Therapy

Recently, the AATA journal published a study in which an investigator connected a client up to an EEG machine while they created art work. Click here to read more.

Related to using EEGs with clients during art therapy, there is a field of neuro-feedback that offers training on using EEG machines to control states of mind. Just as Art Therapy has an international yahoo chat group (AiT) - so too neuro-feedback practitioners share information over yahoo e-mail under the group name: Braintrainer. I signed up for their e-mails and discovered that there are specific brain signals which correspond to creativity, namely: theta.  An interesting site on brainwaves can be found at this link.

Apparently, the brain can be trained to produce a higher frequency of certain brainwaves. I'm curious if art therapy could facilitate this training. There has been a rise in popularity of using EEG machines in therapy. 

Some claim that artistic ability can improve through neurofeedback. There is even a BBC article describing how brain training can improve musicianship.

EEG machines vary in cost may be bought second hand. Chat groups, like the one mentioned previously would be an ideal place to find a used machine.

This video will give you an idea of what neurofeedback is and how it is used: 

What art therapy graduate program teaches about Neuroscience???

Noah Hass-Cohen is proving to be a leader in combining Art Therapy and Neuroscience. She teaches at the Phillips Institute. Here's an excerpt on that school: 

"...the Phillips Graduate Institute Art Therapy Program emphasizes and recognizes... the relevance of clinically applied neuroscience to the field."

for more information click here

Click here for a short read with a lot of valuable references on art therapy and clinical neuroscience.

British Special Interest Group: Art Therapy in Neurology

Today, I stumbled upon a website on art therapy for clients with various brain injuries. The organization is called Art Therapy in Neurology and they seem to be a very new organization but they also seem very enthusiastic. The site might appeal to people who are interested in working with clients who have neurological problems. Currently, they only have around 14 members but their website is suggesting collaboration. If you're interested in this, they might be able to suggest resources and reading materials.

Keynote speaker at AATA Conference reviews brain development

At the 2008 AATA conference in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, Dr. Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D. addressed the topic of how art therapy 1.) impacts the healing process, 2.) facilitates recovery and 3.) aids the restoration of healthy functions of the brain. 

Dr. Perry’s speech was titled “The Healing Arts: The Neurodevelopmental Impact of Art Therapies,” and he brought up the fact that creative art therapies are essentially non-threatening. Dr. Perry stated that providing non-threatening therapy to clients complements the brain’s restorative function because it helps to alleviate stressed states. 

This is so important because stress can decrease in the availability of glucose (which is essential for cell health), affect synaptic plasticity, produce changes in dendritic structure, and lead to loss of neurons, particularly in the hippocampus region of the brain (MsEwen, B., and Sapolsky, R., 1995). Stress can inhibit healing on many different levels!

MsEwen, B., & Sapolsky, R. (1995). Stress and cognitive function. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 5(2), 205-216.

Quotes on Neuroscience and Art Therapy

Art involves distortion, hyperbole and exaggeration... A specific type of distortion... sanscrit word rasa, the spirit of something, the soul of something, capturing the very escence to evoke a specific emotion in the viewers brain.

-Ramachadran-

Swiftly the brain becomes an enchanted loom, where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern-always a meaningful pattern- though never an abiding one. 

-Charles Sherrington-

Within psychology and neuroscience, some new and rigorous experimental paradigms for studying consciousness have helped it begin to overcome the stigma that has been attached to the topic for most of this century. 

-David Chalmers-

Learning [art] is physical... [it] means the modification, growth, and pruning of our neurons, connections-called synapses-and neuronal networks, through experience...when we do so, we are cultivating our own neuronal networks. We become our own gardners.

-Dr. James Zull-

Recent Conference Presentation. Art Therapy and Clinical Neuroscience

The combination of Art Therapy and Clinical Neuroscience is turning heads. Cornell is funding research on Creative Arts Therapy and NYU is reviewing a grant. Both of these investigations are reviewing a structured modality of art therapy known as the TTAP Method (c) by Dr. Levine-Madori.

Click this link and watch a presentation reviewing upcoming and current research. This presentation was given at the American Art Therapy Conference in Cleveland, OH.

Thesis: Neuroscience and Art Therapy

Recent Graduates,

If you did your thesis on a topic related to art therapy and neuroscience, why not post your reference page here? One option is to paste the reference section of your thesis into a google.docs file: http://www.google.com/google-d-s/b1.html

And then just add the link into a comment box. Be sure to include your name and e-mail. Future students will love you for it! They may want to thank you later.

My thesis will be on studying the creative arts as a modality to enhance cognitive functioning in the well elderly. My reference page will be up in a few months.