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OT SCHIZOPHRENICS and HIGHLY CREATIVE PEOPLE



Fascinating new Swedish study (Karolinska Institutet)
shows correlation between the Dopamine systems in highly creative people and schizophrenics.

This is just a quote from the article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100518064610.htm#.TmOpG3e-074.facebook

The study shows that highly creative people who did well on the divergent tests had a lower density of D2 receptors in the thalamus than less creative people," says Dr Ullén. "Schizophrenics are also known to have low D2 density in this part of the brain, suggesting a cause of the link between mental illness
and creativity."

The thalamus serves as a kind of relay centre, filtering information before it reaches areas of the cortex, which is responsible, amongst other things, for cognition and reasoning."Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus," says Dr Ullén, and explains that this could a possible mechanism behind the ability of healthy highly creative people to see numerous uncommon connections in a problem-solving situation and the bizarre associations
found in the mentally ill.

<and I LOVE this quote>

"Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box," says Dr Ullén about his new findings.