Side Effect Of An Illness: Artistic Gifts

Maurice Ravel apparently had “a rare disease called FTD, or frontotemporal dementia,” when he was composing “Bolero,” but non-artists stricken with FTD may lose other abilities even as they suddenly become gifted in the arts. “The disease apparently (alters) circuits in their brains, changing the connections between the front and back parts and resulting in a torrent of creativity.”