El personal de la AFTD y los miembros de la junta asistieron a una representación de la obra. desenredado en el Conservatorio de Música de San Francisco el 21 de julio. La AFTD patrocinó la obra para crear conciencia sobre la FTD y elevar las historias y perspectivas de nuestra comunidad resiliente.

Written by Jake Broder, an Atlantic Fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute, UnRavelled examines how Canadian painter scientist Anne Adams (1940–2007) developed as a painter following her FTD diagnosis and became a remarkable artist. Through her story, the play also uncovers the mystery of French composer Maurice Ravel’s (1875–1937) similar diagnosis almost 100 years earlier. It ended with a symphonic performance of Ravel’s most famous composition, Bolero.

"Ravel y el Dr. Adams se encontraban en las primeras etapas de la afasia primaria progresiva, una forma de demencia frontotemporal, cuando estaban trabajando", dijo el Dr. Bruce Miller, codirector del Global Brain Health Institute. "La enfermedad aparentemente alteró los circuitos en sus cerebros, cambiando las conexiones entre las partes delantera y trasera y dando como resultado un torrente de creatividad".

"La esperanza incrustada en esta historia reúne a médicos, enfermeras, cuidadores, madres, hijas, padres y personas que viven con diferentes subtipos de demencia", dijo Jake Broder, quien pasó varios años estudiando neurociencia y entrevistando al Dr. Miller para crear la obra. (El Dr. Miller, miembro emérito del Consejo Asesor Médico de la AFTD, trató a Adams). “Han llorado, compartido y visto a sí mismos y a sus seres queridos de una manera nueva por primera vez, experimentando algo más que dolor al pensar en demencia”, añadió Broder.

The play was also sponsored by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and The Global Brain Health Institute. UCSF is a leading university in FTD research and has a Memory & Aging Center that focuses on dementias including FTD. The Global Brain Health Institute is a leader in the global community dedicated to protecting the world’s aging populations from threats to brain health.

Immediately following the performance, AFTD CEO Susan L-J Dickinson, MSGC joined a panel to discuss the play, FTD, and how FTD research is advancing. “desenredado uses art to shine a light on our FTD community and raise awareness,” she said. “Although the ‘torrent of creativity’ that both Anne Adams and the composer Ravel experienced as their PPA advanced is extremely rare, the play so poignantly portrays how FTD impacts all of the relationships in a family, not just the person with the diagnosis.”