Highlights
- •There has been little study of how treatment of epilepsy through medication, surgery or neurostimulation may affect the creativity and its expression
- •The neuronal circuits thought to underlie creativity are also commonly involved in epileptogenic networks.
- •Medications may impact cognitive processes critical to creative expression such as arousal and motivation
- •Ablative epilepsy surgery has been shown to disrupt aesthetic preferences and musical abilities, which may impact creative expression.
Abstract
Creativity can be defined as the ability to understand, develop, and express, in a
systematic fashion, novel orderly relationships. It is sometimes difficult to separate
cognitive skills requisite for the creative process from the drive that generates
unique new ideas and associations. Epilepsy itself may affect the creative process.
The treatment of epilepsy and its comorbidities, by altering or disrupting the same
neural networks through antiseizure drugs (ASDs), treatment of epilepsy comorbidities,
ablative surgery, or neurostimulation may also affect creativity. In this review,
we discuss the potential mechanisms by which treatment can influence the creative
process and review the literature on the consequences of therapy on different aspects
of creativity in people with epilepsy.
This article is part of a Special Issue entitled “Epilepsy, Art, and Creativity”.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 28, 2016
Accepted:
December 31,
2015
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
