Leveraging the “mad genius” debate: Why we need a neuroscience of creativity and psychopathology

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Volumn 8, Issue SEP, 2014, Pages 1-4

  Carson, Shelley ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Cognitive disinhibition; Creativity; Latent inhibition; Neuroscience; Psychopathology; Shared vulnerability model

Indexed keywords

ADDICTION; ALCOHOL ABUSE; ARTICLE; ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER; BRAIN FUNCTION; CONSCIOUSNESS; CREATIVITY; GENOTYPE; HUMAN; HYPOMANIA; MENTAL DISEASE; MENTAL HEALTH; MENTAL INSTABILITY; MOOD DISORDER; NEUROSCIENCE; PSYCHOSIS; QUALITY OF LIFE; SCHIZOPHRENIA; SURVIVAL;

EID: 84933676356     PISSN: None     EISSN: 16625161     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00771     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Abraham, A. (2013). The promises and perils of the neuroscience of creativity. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 7:26. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00246
2. Abraham, A. (2014). Is there an inverted-U relationship between creativity and psy-chopathology? Front. Psychol. 5:750. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00750
3. Abraham, A., and Windmann, S. (2008). Selective information processing advantages in creative cognition as a function of schizotypy. Creativity Res. J. 20, 1–6. doi:10.1080/10400410701839819
4. Andreasen, N. (1987). Creativity and mental illness: prevalence rates in writers and their first-degree relatives. Am. J. Psychiatry 144, 1288–1292.
5. Arden, R., Chavez, R. S., Grazioplene, R., and Jung, R. E. (2010). Neuroimaging creativity: a psychometric view. Behav. Brain Res. 214, 143–156. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2010.05.015
6. Ashby, F. G., Isen, A. M., and Turken, A. U. (1999). A neuropsychological theory of positive affect and its influence on cognition. Psychol. Rev. 106, 529–550. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.3.529
7. Barrantes-Vidal, N. (2014). “Creativity and the spectrum of affective and schizophrenic psychoses,” in Creativity and Mental Illness, ed J. C. Kaufman (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), 169–204.
8. Becker, G. (2000-2001). The association of creativity and psychopathology: its cultural-historical origins. Creativity Res. J. 13, 45–53. doi:10.1207/S15326934CRJ1301_6
9. Carson, S. (2013). “Creativity and psychopathol-ogy: shared neurocognitive vulnerabilities,” in Neuroscience of Creativity, eds O. Vartanian, A. S. Briston, and J. C. Kaufman (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), 175–203.
10. Carson, S. H. (2011). Creativity and psychopathology: a shared vulnerability model. Can. J. Psychiatry 56, 144–153.
11. Carson, S., Peterson, J. B., and Higgins, D. (2003). Decreased latent inhibition is associated with increased creative achievement in high-functioning individuals. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 85, 499–506. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.3.499
12. Dardis, T. (1989). The Thirsty Muse: Alcohol and the American Writer. New York, NY: Tichnor and Fields.
13. Dietrich, A. (2014). The mythconception of the mad genius. Front. Psychol. 5:79. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00079
14. Dietrich, A., and Kanso, R. (2010). A review of EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging studies of creativity and insight. Psycho. Bull. 136, 822–848. doi:10.1037/a0019749
15. Dorfman, L., Martindale, C., Gassimova, V., and Vartanian, O. (2008). Creativity and speed of information processing: a double dissociation involving elementary versus inhibitory cognitive tasks. Pers. Individ. Dif. 44, 1382–1390. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.12.006
16. Eysenck, H. J. (1995). “Creativity as a product of intelligence and personality,” in International Handbook of Personality and Intelligence, eds D. H. Saklofske and M. Zeidner (New York, NY: Plenum Press), 231–248. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-5571-8_12
17. Fink, A., and Benedek, M. (2014). EEG alpha power and creative ideation. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 44, 111–123. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.12.002
18. Flaherty, A. (2011). Brain illness and creativity: mechanisms and treatment risks. Can. J. Psychiatry 56, 132–143.
19. Flaherty, A. W. (2005). Frontotemporal and dopamin-ergic control of idea generation and creative drive. J. Comp. Neurol. 493, 147–153. doi:10.1002/cne.20768
20. Frye, M. A., and Salloum, I. M. (2006). Bipolar disorder and comorbid alcoholism: prevalence rate and treatment considerations. Bipolar Disord. 8, 677–685. doi:10.1111/j.1399-5618.2006.00370.x
21. Grucza, R. A., Cloninger, C. R., Bucholz, K. K., Constantino, J. N., Schuckit, M. I., Dick, D. M., et al. (2006). Novelty seeking as a moderator of familial risk for alcohol dependence. Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. 30, 1176–1183. doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2006.00133
22. Healey, D. (2014). “Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and creativity: ever the twain shall meet?” in Creativity and Mental Illness, ed J. C. Kaufman (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), 236–251.
23. Healey, D., and Rucklidge, J. J. (2006). An investigation into the relationship among ADHD symptomatology, creativity, and neuropsychological functioning in children. Child Neuropsychol. 12, 421–438. doi:10.1080/09297040600806086
24. Heston, L. L. (1966). Psychiatric disorders in foster home reared children of schizophrenic mothers. Br. J. Psychiatry 112, 819–825. doi:10.1192/bjp.112.489.819
25. Jamison, K. (1989). Mood disorders and patterns of creativity in British writers and artists. Psychiatry 52, 125–134.
26. Jamison, K. (1993). Touched with Fire. New York, NY: Free Press.
27. Johnson, S. L., Murray, G., Fredrickson, B., Youngstrom, E. A., Hinshaw, S., Malbrancq Bass, J., et al. (2012). Creativity and bipolar disorder: touched by fire or burning with questions? Clin. Psychol. Rev. 32, 1–12. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2011.10.001
28. Jung, R. (2014). Evolution, creativity, intelligence, and madness: “Here Be Dragons.” Front. Psychol. 5:784. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00784
29. Karlsson, J. L. (1970). Genetic association of giftedness and creativity with schizophrenia. Hereditas 66, 177–182. doi:10.1111/j.1601-5223.1970.tb02343.x
30. Kaufmann, G., and Kaufmann, A. (2014). “When good is bad and bad is good: mood, bipolarity, and creativity,” in Creativity and Mental Illness, ed J. C. Kaufman (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), 205–235.
31. Kéri, S. (2009). Genes for psychosis and creativity: a promoter polymorphism of the neuregulin 1 gene is related to creativity in people with high intellectual achievement. Psychol. Sci. 20, 1070–1073. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02398.x
32. Kéri, S. (2011). Solitary minds and social capital: latent inhibition, general intellectual functions and social network size predict creative achievement. Psychol. Aesthet. Creativity Arts 5, 215–221. doi:10.1037/a0022000215
33. Kinney, D. K., Richards, R., Lowing, P. A., LeBlanc, D., Zimbalist, M. E., and Harlan, P. (2000-2001). Creativity in offspring of schizophrenic and control parents: an adoption study. Creativity Res. J. 13, 17–25. doi:10.1207/S15326934CRJ1301_3
34. Koestler, A. (1964). The Act of Creation. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
35. Kosslyn, S. M., Thompson, W. L., and Ganis, G. (2006). The Case for Mental Imagery. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179088.001.0001
36. Kris, E. (1952). Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.
37. Pring, L., Ryder, N., Crane, L., and Hermelin, B. (2012). Creativity in savant artists with autism. Autism 16, 45–57. doi:10.1177/136236131140378
38. Ludwig, A. (1990). Alcohol input and creative output. Br. J. Addict. 85, 953–963. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.1990.tb03726.x
39. Ludwig, A. (1992). Creative achievement and psy-chopathology: comparison among professions. Am. J. Psychother. 46, 330–354.
40. Martindale, C. (1999). “Biological basis of creativity,” in Handbook of Creativity, ed R. Sternberg (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), 137–152.
41. Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a Psychology of Being. New York, NY: Wiley.
42. Mayseless, N., Uzefovsky, F., Shalev, I., Ebstein, R. P., and Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2013). The association between creativity and 7R polymorphism in the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4). Front. Hum. Neurosci. 7:502. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00502
43. McCrae, R. R. (1993). Openness to experience as a basic dimension of personality. Imagination Cogn. Pers. 13, 39–55. doi:10.2190/H8H6-QYKR-KEU8-GAQ0
44. McCrea, S. M. (2008). Bipolar disorder and neu-rophysiologic mechanisms. Neuropsychiatr. Dis. Treat. 4, 1129–1153. doi:10.2147/NDT.S4329
45. Miller, G. F. (2001). Aesthetic fitness: how sexual selection shaped artistic virtuosity as a fitness indicator and aesthetic preference as mate choice criteria. Bull. Psychol. Arts 2, 20–25.
46. Minassian, A., Henry, B. L., Young, J. W., Masten, V., Geyer, M. A., and Perry, W. (2011). Repeated assessment of exploration and novelty seeking in the human behavioral pattern monitor in bipolar disorder patients and healthy individuals. PLoS ONE 6:e24185. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024185
47. Ott, U., Reuter, M., Hennig, J., and Vaitl, D. (2005). Evidence for a common biological basis of the absorption trait, hallucinogen effects, and positive symptoms: epistasis between 5-HT2a and COMT polymorphisms. Am. J. Med. Genet. B Neuropsychiatr. Genet. 137B, 29–32. doi:10.1002/ajmg.b.30197
48. Post, F. (1994). Creativity and psychopathology: a study of 291 world-famous men. Br. J. Psychiatry 165, 22–34. doi:10.1192/bjp.165.1.22
49. Reuter, M., Panksepp, J., Schnabel, N., Kellerhoff, N., Kempel, P., and Hennig, J. (1995). Personality and biological markers of creativity. Eur. J. Pers. 19, 83–95. doi:10.1002/per.534
50. Reuter, M., Roth, S., Holve, K., and Henning, J. (2006). Identification of first candidate genes for creativity: a pilot study. Brain Res. 1069, 190–197. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2005.11.046
51. Richards, R. (1999). “Everyday creativity,” in Encyclopedia of Creativity, Vol. 1, eds M. A. Runco and S. R. Pritzker (San Diego, CA: Academic Press), 683–687.
52. Richards, R., Kinney, D. K., Lunde, I., Benet, M., and Merzel, A. P. C. (1988). Creativity in manic–depressives, cyclothymes, their normal relatives, and control subjects. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 97, 281–288. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.97.3.281
53. Sawyer, K. (2012). Explaining Creativity: the Science of Human Innovation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
54. Schlesinger, J. (2009). Creative mythconceptions: a closer look at the evidence for the “mad genius” hypothesis. Psychol. Aesthet. Creativity Arts 3, 62–72. doi:10.1037/a0013975
55. Simonton, D. K. (2014). More method in the mad- genius controversy: a historiomet-ric study of 204 historic creators. Psychol. Aesthet. Creativity Arts 8, 53–61. doi:10.1037/a0035367
56. Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Thermenos, H. W., Milanovic, S., Tsuang, M. T., Faraone, S. V., McCarley, R. W., et al. (2009). Hyperactivity and hyperconnectivity of the default network in schizophrenia and in first-degree relatives of persons with schizophrenia. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106, 1279–1284. doi:10.1073/pnas.0809141106
57. World Health Organization, (2013). The World Health Report 2013: Research for Universal Health Coverage. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO.