ResearchBlogCast #10: Does being a little crazy make you more creative?
July 6th, 2010 ResearchBlogCast 2 Comments
Throughout history we’ve seen examples of artists and others who, while possessing amazing talent, also don’t seem “normal.” Whether it be tormented artists like Vincent van Gogh, or the stereotype of the “mad scientist,” it often seems like a little schizophrenia might underlie amazing genius.
In fact, some psychological studies have found that schizophrenics do tend to be more creative than normal people. But is there a neurological basis for creativity?
Each week, Kevin Zelnio, Razib Khan, and I choose one or more journal articles that have been covered by bloggers on ResearchBlogging.org to discuss in podcast form. Ideally, you’ll read the blog post first to get a general understanding of the research, then listen to our podcast to hear our impressions. Here is the article we’re discussing this week:
de Manzano, Ö., Cervenka, S., Karabanov, A., Farde, L., & Ullén, F. (2010). Thinking Outside a Less Intact Box: Thalamic Dopamine D2 Receptor Densities Are Negatively Related to Psychometric Creativity in Healthy Individuals PLoS ONE, 5 (5) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010670
The report was discussed on several blogs:
- Creativity and Mental Illness
- Dopamine receptor binding potential in the thalamus and creativity
- More brains and bonkers connection: thinking out of a broken box
Since this remains an experimental project, we’d appreciate any feedback you can offer on the podcast.
