Despite having unremarkable artistic talent, an 8-year-old male with chronic focal epilepsy from the right lateral frontal lobe drew a complex visual pattern during a 15-minute spell when he looked physically unwell. He underwent epilepsy surgery shortly thereafter and has been seizure-free since. In the ensuing 16 years of follow-up there have been no other such artistic incidents. We deduce that emergence of paroxysmal de novo artistic ability in our patient was caused by seizure discharge disinhibiting the ipsilateral parietal cortex and/or transient ictal engagement of distant salience and default mode sites.
Keywords: Nondominant hemisphere; epilepsy surgery; savant syndrome; visuospatial ability.