Does Learning To Draw Change the Brain?

Building on past findings, an interdisciplinary team of investigators with expertise in studio art, cognitive sciences (learning and memory), and neuroscience combined behavioral measures, and functional and structural MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) at the beginning and end of a 16-week drawing class in a NASAD-accredited art and art history program in order to examine the effects of training in observational drawing on behavioral and neural changes in the brain (brain plasticity).This presentation will recount the methodology and findings to date of the pilot project (2016) and subsequent NEA-funded “Research: ArtWorks” study (2018 through 2020) that increased the cohort of drawing participants and included a matched control group with no art experience. Two MRI scanning sessions per participant were conducted, one, at pre- and one at post-instruction (Time 1 and Time 2 respectively). The 2016 pilot study findings showed both behavioral results and higher activation in the right Medial Frontal Gyrus of drawing students at Time 2 compared to Time 1. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to examine the relation between drawing and brain plasticity for practical benefits of long-term training in drawing for artists and non-artists alike; and, second, to lay the ground work for drawing as instruction to stimulate neural plasticity in individuals with cognitive impairment.