The prevalence of dyslexia among art students.

It is widely held opinion that dyslexia is associated with remarkably artistic creativity. Speculations on different brain structures and brain functions have been proposed as an explanation. Very few objective studies have been reported that confirm the conjectures on the relationship between dyslexia and artistic creativity. Two studies are reported on the prevalence of dyslexia among university students-one group of art students and one group of students from non-art disciplines. The admission to the art schools were extremely demanding, possibly implying that the students were genuinely talented, and that their choice of training did not reflect a compensation for failure in conventional academic fields. Art academy students reported significantly more signs of dyslexia than non-art university students. Objective testing showed that art students had significantly poorer phonological skills than non-art students. Thus, according to self-reports combined with objective testing, the incidence of dyslexia was far higher among art students.