Program Uses Art to Help Spark Memories for Those With Alzheimer's, Dementia

The Denver Art Museum is now hosting a program called Art and About that uses art to help evoke memories for people with Alzheimer's and dementia, reports WPTV 5 . Dan Linseman with the Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging says retrieving memories via art helps people with increasing recall difficulty maintain cognitive neural networks. "Those are probably bona fide memories that are being stimulated by the artwork," he suggests, "that maybe otherwise they wouldn't be able to verbalize." Such programs have demonstrated a potential to improve quality of life and socialization, which can lower the incidence of depression associated with memory loss.