Five Questions With: Dr. Peter Snyder

"Although the speed with which the disease progresses tends to be quite variable across individuals, depending on personal backgrounds, medical and social histories, and the presence or absence of various risk factors, the actual complex of symptoms for the disease are quite knowable and predictable. "

Dr. Peter Snyder is chief research officer and senior vice president at Lifespan as well as a professor of neurology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He is both organizing and contributing artwork to the forthcoming exhibition “Interstice: Memory, Mind and Alzheimer’s Disease,” which opens on July 16 with a 5:30-7:30 pm reception at the Cohen Gallery in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts at Brown.

PBN: To what extent is Alzheimer’s always an individual nightmare, with unknowable components, and to what extent is it a knowable and consistent complex of symptoms?
SNYDER:
Unfortunately, although the speed with which the disease progresses tends to be quite variable across individuals, depending on personal backgrounds, medical and social histories, and the presence or absence of various risk factors, the actual complex of symptoms for the disease are quite knowable and predictable. For the individual patient, a diagnosis of “early Alzheimer’s” or “mild cognitive impairment” that is suspected to be a precursor to Alzheimer’s, does indeed start out as an individual nightmare. Alzheimer’s is one of only a handful of diseases for which the individual patient must confront the inevitability that he or she will slowly, inexorably lose his or her sense of self: who they are, what they have accomplished in life, whom they love, and their dreams and aspirations. In the early stages, this disease is marked by feelings of isolation, even for those surrounded by friends and loved ones, as the individual patient finds themselves on a path that they are on alone, and no one around them can fully appreciate the stark reality of the loss of self over time.

PBN: What are the most important aspects of the disease that you try to convey with your own art?
SNYDER:
My own work in this exhibit is intended to convey how pervasive the disease is within our community. With permission from the participants in my own clinical research, I am using their images – their eyes – and their voices, along with pieces of imagery from retinal and brain scans, woven into my sculptural work, so that the viewer has a feeling that this disease might be affecting anyone standing around them, as the disease is mostly hidden from view. I am also constructing a large installation piece, to create a three-dimensional representation of the complexity of the neural circuitry underlying memory, but to also show that circuitry in a state of collapse due to the ravages of the disease on the viability of the brain cells involved.

PBN: What is most surprising to people when they learn more about Alzheimer’s?
SNYDER:
I would like visitors to the exhibit to take a few moments to reflect on just how prevalent Alzheimer’s is all around us, and how crucial it is to support all efforts to discover treatments that will slow disease progression. In 2015, the direct costs to society of caring for those with Alzheimer’s totaled roughly $226 billion. This figure will rise many-fold over the next two decades, unless we can identify treatments that truly slow progression and protect quality of life for those afflicted, even by five or six additional years.

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PBN: How has art helped improve your own understanding of Alzheimer’s?
SNYDER
: I spend my working life using my artwork to better understand my science, and using my scientific research to inform decision-making with respect to visual design. This past year, as I launched a new study at Rhode Island Hospital using cutting-edge technology to explore biomarkers of disease in the human retina, I practiced my understanding of retinal anatomy by weaving this material into my woodturnings and sculptural forms. The ties between visual art and science are deep and extend back to the beginning of recorded history of scientific enquiry.

PBN: This event looks to be getting some good early attention – what are you hearing as you help bring it fruition from those involved and those with a stake in the show?
SNYDER:
I am honestly delighted by the attention that this exhibit seems to be receiving. I am grateful to the Brown Creative Arts Council for an initial $10,000 grant, as well as access to the Cohen Gallery in the Granoff Center for Creative Arts for the two months that this exhibit will run. Most recently, the Rhode Island chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association has enthusiastically supported this effort, and I am gratified to know that they will be bringing the support groups for caregivers that they run, across the state, to see this exhibit while it is in place.

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