In a museum, out of Alzheimer's grip
The visitors have been quiet as they've moved past the Impressionist paintings. But as they make their way slowly, some in wheelchairs, to Paul Delvaux's surrealist painting "The Greeting," they begin to talk.
One gray-haired woman points out hazy figures lounging behind the curtained windows. Another remarks on the curious way the shadows play to each other. And another woman looks at the painting's central figures -- a man in a black suit, donning his bowler hat to a nude woman draped in red -- and sees something odd.
"I love the fact that he's not looking at her at all," she says. "He's looking down at the ground."
The women on the tour, struggling with Alzheimer's disease, may not be able to remember their last names or their ages or where they were born. But for an hour at the Museum of Fine Arts , this group of patients from Goddard House, an assisted living community in Brookline, are in a world unbound by the struggles of daily life.
As more Americans are diagnosed with Alzheimer's, a progressive brain disorder that robs sufferers of memory and eventually, speech, some caregivers and doctors argue that exposure to art, music, and other creative work can stimulate the brain. While localized areas of the brain control language, sections stretched across the brain respond to art and other creative endeavors, said John Zeisel , president of Hearthstone Alzheimer Care , based in Woburn, which runs eight assisted living residences.
"Once the art experience takes over, they sometimes find words they couldn't find before," he said. "They find they can express themselves better."
The MFA has been one of the country's leaders in offering free guided tours of art for people with Alzheimer's. For the past five years, specially trained guides have taken individuals or groups on tours of the museum's exhibits. During the past 10 months, 63 visitors with Alzheimer's have taken part in the program, said Hannah Goodwin , the MFA's manager of accessibility.
Goodwin has witnessed visitors moved by art. In one of the most dramatic cases, a man who had been quiet throughout the tour began speaking eloquently about jazz in New York City in the 1940s as he gazed at a painting by Stuart Davis .
"It taps into that person's core self," Goodwin said. "They're able to express ideas and respond to things."
Zeisel recently accompanied a group from Hearthstone at Heights Crossing in Brockton. A founder of Artists for Alzheimer's , he has been working with other cultural institutions to open their doors to people with Alzheimer's. Currently, he is negotiating with a local orchestra.
"That's the only way we can free people up and give them access to the world around them," he said.
On a recent tour, Zeisel was struck by a resident of one of his company's homes who spoke articulately about the universal nature of art. "That's a pretty profound statement for someone with moderate dementia," he said.
On the Goddard House tour last month, Stephanie Krol , a resident of the assisted living community, liked the pastoral scenes she saw at the MFA. They reminded her of her childhood. "When I was young, my father had a farm," she said.
Speech doesn't come easily to all of the visitors. One woman had difficulty after the tour talking about the paintings and sculpture she had seen. But she remembered the kind of paintings she liked best: "The ones that kind of made we wonder," she said.
Joseph Somerset of Boston took his wife to the MFA after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Weymouth Somerset was an artist who had loved the museum's collections many years earlier. More recently, touring by wheelchair, she was eager to visit the Impressionists.
"She was very pleased to see these things again," her husband said. "Maybe she saw things in there that she had forgotten."
Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com 
