Biological Basis For Creativity Linked To Mental Illness
Source: University Of Toronto
Date: 2003-10-01

Psychologists from the University of Toronto and Harvard University
have identified one of the biological bases of creativity.

The study in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology says the brains of creative people appear to be
more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment. Other
people's brains might shut out this same information through a
process called "latent inhibition" - defined as an animal's
unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are
irrelevant to its needs. Through psychological testing, the
researchers showed that creative individuals are much more likely to
have low levels of latent inhibition.

"This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the
extra information constantly streaming in from the environment," says
co-author and U of T psychology professor Jordan Peterson. "The
normal person classifies an object, and then forgets about it, even
though that object is much more complex and interesting than he or
she thinks. The creative person, by contrast, is always open to new
possibilities."

Previously, scientists have associated failure to screen out stimuli
with psychosis. However, Peterson and his co-researchers - lead
author and psychology lecturer Shelley Carson of Harvard University's
Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard PhD candidate Daniel
Higgins - hypothesized that it might also contribute to original
thinking, especially when combined with high IQ. They administered
tests of latent inhibition to Harvard undergraduates. Those
classified as eminent creative achievers - participants under age 21
who reported unusually high scores in a single area of creative
achievement - were seven times more likely to have low latent
inhibition scores.

The authors hypothesize that latent inhibition may be positive when
combined with high intelligence and good working memory - the
capacity to think about many things at once - but negative otherwise.
Peterson states: "If you are open to new information, new ideas, you
better be able to intelligently and carefully edit and choose. If you
have 50 ideas, only two or three are likely to be good. You have to
be able to discriminate or you'll get swamped."

"Scientists have wondered for a long time why madness and creativity
seem linked," says Carson. "It appears likely that low levels of
latent inhibition and exceptional flexibility in thought might
predispose to mental illness under some conditions and to creative
accomplishment under others."

For example, during the early stages of diseases such as
schizophrenia, which are often accompanied by feelings of deep
insight, mystical knowledge and religious experience, chemical
changes take place in which latent inhibition disappears.

"We are very excited by the results of these studies," says
Peterson. "It appears that we have not only identified one of the
biological bases of creativity but have moved towards cracking an age-
old mystery: the relationship between genius, madness and the doors
of perception."


This research was funded by the Stimson Fund and the Clark Fund at
Harvard University and by the Connaught Fund at U of T.


This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University
Of Toronto.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/10/031001061055.htm