Biological Basis For Creativity Linked To Mental Illness

[mmcnealy]

I think the article headline is a little misleading, but its an interesting study that looks at creativity.
Biological Basis For Creativity Linked To Mental Illness

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."

Comments

[gailsedotes.livejournal.com]

recently went to a lecture on the links between creativity and schizophrenia...

[pinkdiamond.livejournal.com]

Definitely noticed that I take more of an interest in the mundane than most people. I thought it had to do with being an equal brained person;) I look at a flower and think about the biological processes as well as the aesthetics.

Yes the article is misleading but I can see the link to certain types of "illness" those where you are overstimulated by the environment. Thanks for posting this.

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

nods. There's a school of thought that giftedness is sorta like that too. All children start by processing information in many different ways -- by the time they're about 8, they loose most of those ways to process information and become primarily an auditory (or visual or whatever) learner. The Gifted Child, in contrast, never looses those other paths to process information.