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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.