The PFC has a big job. It is connected with sensory systems involved in perception and receives information about past events and connects them to long-term memory circuits. As part of the limbic system it modulates emotions and motivations programs and performs plans of actions. In other words, “seeing” that art piece in your mind, planning what materials to use and then executing is all due to this little piece of grey matter. It is understandable then, that impairment of the PFC would result in a creative drought. Yet, clinical evidence says it is not so.

Mrs. YCFZ intrigued her doctors, which decided to systematically analyze her drawing production. They used a test called the consensual assessment technique (CAT) to measure global creativity of each drawing. Independent professional visual artists rated a series of 12 compositions spanning 3 years. They answered questions such as “How beautiful is this painting” [Aesthetics] “How strongly does the painting induce feelings or thoughts?” [Evocative impact] “How original or new is the painting” [Novelty]. The artists were not informed of the mental status of Mrs. YCFZ – they were only told to grade the drawings in front of them. Even though her cognitive ability deteriorated over the course of those three years, her creative capacity had not.

She scored higher from her first to her last drawings; especially in measures of Novelty and Abstraction.