Latest News
Cognitive Dynamics Affiliates Collaborate on Medical Textbook Chapter
Cognitive Dynamics Founder and President Daniel C. Potts, M.D. along with Executive Arts Director Angel C. Duncan, MA-MFT, ATR and Advisory Board member Carol A. Prickett, Ph.D. , MT-BC are collaborative authors in a new textbook titled Geriatric Neurology to be published by Wiley-Blackwell in April, 2014. The title of the authored chapter is “Expressive Art Therapies in Geriatric Neurology,” chapter 26 of the text. Bruce Miller, M.D. and Andrea M. Cevasco, MT-BC also collaborated on the chapter. Below is the description of the textbook on the Wiley-Blackwell website:
As society grows older, so do the neurological problems associated with aging. These can be new neurological deficits due to the aging process itself, or the effect of aging on already existing neurological conditions. Neurologists will spend increasing amounts of time managing patients with age-related neurological complications.
Geriatric Neurology brings together the wisdom of world-leading experts. They have crafted a new textbook to define this emerging subspecialty from basic science through clinical assessment and medical management to social aspects of patient care. Geriatric Neurology covers:
The aging brain in neurology
Assessment of the geriatric neurology patient
Neurological conditions in the elderly
Therapeutics for the geriatric neurology patient
Management issues beyond therapeutics
Comprehensive in scope but with practical focus for effective patient care, Geriatric Neurology provides top-of-class guidance for the management of elderly patients with neurological disorders.
Potts and Duncan consult on MIND App from GE Healthcare
Angel C. Duncan, M.A. MFT, ATR and Daniel C. Potts, M.D. of the Cognitive Dynamics Foundation were honored to be consultants in the development of the innovative new MIND App from GE Healthcare (Make An Impact on Neurological Disorders).
The App provides art, music, and dance activities for those with neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Traumatic Brain Injury, as well as basic information on the disorders and advice for caregivers.
Download it free on your iPad today at this link:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ge-mind/id799194074?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Cognitive Dynamics Partners with Life Bio for Art to Life
Art to Life, the art therapy/life story preservation initiative sponsored by Cognitive Dynamics in collaboration with the University of Alabama Honors College, is excited to partner with LifeBio (https://www.lifebio.com/) and The Mal and Charlotte Moore Center for Caring Days (http://www.caringdays.org/) for our Spring semester of 2014.
The program fosters relationships between students and persons with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers, while exploring self-expression in dementia through the benefits of art therapy, validating participants in their current lives and honoring their stories.
The program started in 2011 in partnership with Sowing Seeds of Hope Foundation in Perry County, Alabama. Since 2011 the program has brought quality of life improvement through art therapy and life story preservation to approximately twenty participants with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as approximately fifty undergraduate Honors students from diverse backgrounds.
One of the program’s goals is the fostering of empathic, cross-generational relationships between students, persons with cognitive impairment and their caregivers.
Cognitive Dynamics welcomes the opportunity to utilize Life Bio’s structured and validated life story preservation and presentation methods to enrich course offerings. We are also fortunate to partner with The Mal and Charlotte Moore Center for Caring Days, the facility where the art therapy will take place. Caring Days is the longest running adult daycare in Alabama for individuals with Alzheimer’s or dementia of other causes.
Naomi Feil Interviewed for Documentary
Naomi Feil, founder of Validation Therapy and one of the pioneers in what has come to be known as person-centered care for the elderly with cognitive impairment, was interviewed today by Cognitive Dynamics founder and President, Dr. Daniel C. Potts for an upcoming documentary, “Do You Know Me Now?”
The documentary explores the persistence of personhood in those with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as ways to tap into the self of such individuals to foster empathy, relationship, dignity and quality of life.
Naomi Feil and Daniel C. Potts
Click the link below to watch a short promotional trailer for the documentary.
Can new talents develop after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease?
http://www.alzheimersreadingroom.com/2013/09/can-new-talents-develop-after-diagnosis.html
Click on the link above to read the latest blog from the Alzheimer’s Reading Room, which highlights the creativity of Alzheimer’s artist Lester E. Potts, Jr., the inspiration behind the founding of Cognitive Dynamics. Potts, a rural Alabama saw miller, became an acclaimed watercolor artist in the throes of Alzheimer’s disease, having never shown previous artistic talent. His art has been displayed internationally, and is the subject of research. He started painting while participating in an arts group at Caring Days Adult Daycare Center in Tuscaloosa, AL. http://www.caringdays.org/
Max Wallack, the remarkable 17 year old Alzheimer’s advocate who started Puzzles to Remember http://www.puzzlestoremember.org/ comments about the emergence of new talent in some people with Alzheimer’s disease, and touts cognitive enhancing tools like puzzles as potentially beneficial in fostering such creative expression.
Max has recently written “Why Did Grandma Put Her Underwear in the Refrigerator?” http://www.amazon.com/Why-Did-Grandma-Underwear-Refrigerator/dp/1489501673 to help explain Alzheimer’s disease to children.
Lester E. Potts, Jr. passed away from Alzheimer’s disease on September 15, 2007.
“Let Me Be Your Memory” Goes National
HELP US RAISE ALZHEIMER’S AWARENESS and elder appreciation among our youth! An exciting partnership between The Voice Library and Cognitive Dynamics has produced “Let Me Be Your Memory,” the first-ever language arts/Alzheimer’s awareness curriculum for middle school students. Piloted successfully at the Tuscaloosa Magnet Middle School in 2012, the program is about to go national with your help. Visit our Rockethub site to learn how you can support this worthy educational initiative, and help our youth learn a deeper appreciation for the rich life stories of their elders, all in the name of Alzheimer’s awareness!
http://www.rockethub.com/projects/32008-let-me-be-your-memory-language-arts-curriculum-for-alzheimer-s-awareness
“Do You Know Me Now?”
Cognitive Dynamics is producing a documentary entitled “Do You Know Me Now?” (see the above link to a 9 minute promotional trailer). This is a documentary for families and care givers on how to connect to people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia and memory loss through person-centered care, the use of the expressive arts and the compelling dynamics of early childhood memories.
As viewer Sylvia Overby said after screening, the video shows “A terrible disease that may hold hidden riches.”
Tax-deductible donations for the completion of the project may be mailed to:
Cognitive Dynamics
P.O. Box 1008
Tuscaloosa, AL 35403
Advisory board member publishes on Alzheimer’s art
Changes in painting styles of two artists with Alzheimer’s disease
Cognitive Dynamics Advisory Board member Anjan Chatterjee, MD, FAAN has recently published an article in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts demonstrating that quantitative methods can be applied to the neuropsychology of art production to determine whether there are systematic changes in the art produced by individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
In assessing the art of two persons with Alzheimer’s disease (one of whom was Lester E. Potts, Jr.), it was shown that both AD patients produced paintings with more abstraction and use of symbolism and with less depictive accuracy and realism. When these observations were combined with those made recently in three artists with focal brain damage, it was found that conceptual more than formal perceptual attributes are susceptible to change after neurological illness.
Dr. Chatterjee is a Professor of Neurology, a member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and the Center for Neuroscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania.
To access the article abstract, visit the link above. For more information about Dr. Chatterjee, visit:
Potts speaks at North Mississippi State Hospital
Click the link above to read an article in the Northeast Mississippi Daily News about a lecture given by Dr. Daniel Potts at the North Mississippi State Hospital on June 20, 2013. The lecture was about the use of expressive arts therapies and life story preservation in the treatment of those with dementia, and highlighted the art and life story of Lester E. Potts, Jr.
Poetry on The Voice Library
The Voice Library is an online digital library of customized audio memories…stories, poems, songs, and other reminiscences, that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, via multiple means (phone, computer, mobile device).
Cognitive Dynamics has recently partnered with The Voice Library to pilot “Let Me Be Your Memory,” an audio reminiscence project with the Tuscaloosa Magnet Middle School in Alabama as a way to promote Alzheimer’s awareness and intergenerational relationships.
Poetry and bibliotherapy (the use of literary modalities to promote healing) is an effective means of improving quality of life and promoting dignity for the cognitively-impaired.
Please click the link below to listen to recited poems of Dr. Daniel C. Potts. Once on the site, please use the following information, and then follow the instructions to select the recording you would like to hear:
Listener ID-2304
Password-22084761
You may also listen by phone by calling the following number, toll-free: 1-888-343-2763, and using the same log in information.
Our Mission
To improve the quality of life of persons with cognitive disorders (such as Alzheimer’s disease) and their caregivers through education, research, and support of innovative care models which promote human dignity, especially therapies employing the expressive arts and storytelling.
For more information about Cognitive Dynamics and what we do please contact us.