#44 Jennifer Thomas & Michael Stanley - The creative spark: Switching on the inner artist in the face of Parkinson's Disease
Description
In this conversation with Jennifer ('Niffy') Thomas and Dr. Michael Stanley, we talk about how Niffy became an artist after undergoing DBS surgery to treat her early onset Parkinson's Disease. Dr. Michael Stanley is a cognitive neurologist at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and has special interest in art and the brain: He studies how lesions or other neurological conditions can lead to cessation of artistic behavior or how they can change the artistic style of artists. When he read about Niffy's case, he reached out to her and the two had multiple conversations about it. In preparation to this conversation, we were in contact with Dr. Paul Krack (Bern) who has studied and published upon similar cases in which DBS surgery changed or initiated artistic behavior. There is so much we can learn from Niffy and I am very grateful for her taking the time to share her story: Indeed, in her youth, Niffy did not enjoy art class at school and never had a particular interest in painting. She expressed herself differently: Via athletic competition or by playing the piano. But after coming home from DBS surgery in 2019, all of a sudden, there was this imminent urge – to paint...
In this episode, we have the pleasure of hosting Mark McAuley, a deep brain stimulation (DBS) patient and the CEO of Astronomy Australia Limited, and Dr. Susan Boehnke, an Associate Professor at Queen’s University in Canada and director of the Neurotech Microcredential Program and the Neurotech...
Published 11/20/24
In today’s episode, we dive deep into two groundbreaking studies led by Daniela and Clément. We explore their 2022 Nature Communications paper on using cerebellar stimulation to alleviate levodopa-induced dyskinesias in Parkinson’s disease and discuss their 2023 paper uncovering the cerebellum’s...
Published 11/11/24