Health: The Art Of Dementia

Jancy Chang was a talented artist and teacher, and only in her 40s, when the symptoms of dementia began to appear. She had a rare form of progressive aphasia that would sap her language skills and force her to retire from teaching at 52. But even as she was losing the ability to make lesson plans, grade homework or remember the names of her students, her artistic vision seemed to be expanding (see right). "Her painting became wilder and freer and more original as her language declined," says Dr. Bruce Miller, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco,...

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