Brain Fluctuations, Disease States Affect Creative Dexterity

Sensorimotor disorders with onset at any time in life from birth through advanced age resulting in tremor, weakness, sensory loss, or ataxia all reduce the accuracy of our movements and thus impair motor dexterity. Had Rembrandt suffered from essential tremor, he would not likely be known as a great artist today. One of the less well understood movement disorders is action- or task-specific dystonia, which is analogous to writer’s cramp but can affect the fingering hand of a violinist, for example. The "yips" may be another example that affects golfers and competitors in other sports that some feel may be neurological and others claim it to be psychological.

Psychological factors can certainly play a role more generally. Simply getting nervous enough can reduce the accuracy of our ability to solve problems or shoot a target. Performance anxiety can affect hunting, sexual performance, and even the neurology board exam. This leads us to the consideration of how temperament-related problems can adversely affect our creativity, which we shall consider in more detail next month.

Dr. Richard J. Caselli is medical editor of Clinical Neurology News and is a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.