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Summary MPBD: Bright side of mental illness
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MPBD: Bright side of mental illnessGenes and psychiatry Is there also an association between creativity
• New explanations, new hypotheses, and new and healthy people that are on the spectrum of
models for pathways to explain the genotype to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder? Highly
phenotype behaviour, such as “Complex creative people often seem to have odd thoughts
genetics” or “Diathesis-Risk model” and the and eccentric behaviour. This was already seen in
“Differential susceptibly to Environment ancient Greece, both Plato and Aristoteles made
hypothesis”, and “Balancing Selection comments about the peculiar behaviour of poets
Hypothesis”. and playwrights. This is too extensive to be the
result of mere coincidence.
Creativity and mental conditions
There is an assumption that creativity is What is creativity?
related to psychiatric vulnerability, which Creativity is the ability to produce something
dates back to antiquity. Aristotle’s said, “no novel and useful or meaningful. Creativity is
great genius has ever existed without a strain divergent thinking. Convergent thinking involves
of madness”. aiming for a single, correct solution to a problem,
whereas divergent thinking involves the creative
Researchers studied the linkage between generation of multiple answers to a set problem.
creativity and mental disorders and if this is Creativity is the ability to transcend traditional
linked to the environment or if it is genetics. ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, and to create
they did a family study that included 300.000 meaningful new ideas, forms, methods,
people based on registries. They looked at interpretations, etc.
people that received inpatient treatment for
schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or unipolar How do you measure creativity and eccentric
depression, and that also hold a creative behaviour from a scientific point of view?
occupation, between the years 1973 and 2003 Creativity:
and compared them to “healthy” relatives. The • Creative achievement questionnaire (a measure
results showed that individuals with bipolar of lifetime creative achievement)
disorder and healthy siblings of people with • Divergent thinking tasks, a measure of the
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder hold a ability to think creatively (which requires a large
creative occupation. People with schizophrenia number of responses or solutions to a problem)
had no increased rate of overall creative • Creative personality scale. Eccentric, scales
professions compared with controls, but an that assess schizotypal personality.
increased rate in the subgroup of artistic
occupations. Neither individuals with unipolar Schizotypical personality
depression nor their siblings differed from • Odd beliefs and magical thinking (telepathy,
controls regarding creative professions. sixth sense, conspiracy theories)
In this study they • Ideas of reference (secret message in
also controlled for conversation, mild paranoia)
IQ. Non-affected • Unusual perceptual experiences (perception
first-degree distortions, hearing voices, out-of-body
relatives of people experience)
with schizophrenia • Social anhedonia (preference for solitary
or bipolar disorder activities, social isolation, physical and
demonstrated the emotionally unavailable.
highest increased creativity and this gradually • Eccentricity (odd or flamboyant clothing,
decreased with increasing familial distance to speech patterns may be stilted, intellectualized,
these individuals. Individuals with disorders symbolic, and filled with unusual phrasing that
showed only modest increases in creativity. others have difficulty understanding).
Results hence suggest a genetic rather than Schizotypical personality disorder = acute
environmental explanation for the familial co- discomfort and functional problems in
segregation of creativity and psychopathology. maintaining relationships. Not all schizotypal
This study and several other studies found people have a disorder, though most relatives of
associations between certain mental disorders people with schizophrenia have a schizotypal
and creativity. personality.
, There is a continuum in the schizophrenia functions, such as survival advantages by
spectrum: schizotypal personality < enhancing social cohesion. Music and dance can
schizotypal personality disorder < synchronize communities (African dance to clubs
schizophrenia. to festivals). It may also play a role in reducing
violence and increasing understanding, hence
Where is the border between normal and increasing survival. Creativity also falls into the
abnormal behaviour? Schizophrenia is a sexual selection, such as the “peacock tail”
severe disorder that causes suffering and phenomenon (artistic creativity attracts mates).
problems in daily function, but this is harder to
say about people with schizotypical What mechanism in the brain could make you
personality disorder and schizotypal more susceptible to creativity and others more
personality. for psychosis? Either schizotypical personality
directly increases creativity, or there is a third
Is there also an association between creativity factor that increases both the probability of
and healthy people on the schizophrenia schizotypical personality AND the probability of
spectrum? They did a study with 36 adopted creative behaviour. We know that not every
offspring of schizophrenic parents and 36 schizotypical person is creative, so there is no
matched control subjects adopted from non- direct relationship between having a
schizophrenic parents. Adopted offspring of schizotypical personality and creativity. So, there
schizophrenic individuals with signs of must be a third factor. Researchers think that an
schizotypical personality had higher scores for important cognitive mechanism is the
creativity than the control subjects. Some “propensity of cognitive disinhibition”.
control subjects who did not have a family
history of schizophrenia met the profile Cognitive disinhibition
schizotypical personality, they scored higher This means failure to ignore irrelevant
for creativity than other control subjects. information. This means that there is less brain
Schizotypical individuals may inherit the filtering from the thalamus. Reduced cognitive
unconventional modes of thinking and filtering leads to an increased amount of
perception associated with schizophrenia unfiltered stimuli that reach the cortex, which
without inheriting the disease itself. Though, makes you more consciously aware. This could
schizophrenia is associated with impaired result in odd thoughts, hallucinations, strange
physical health and drastically reduced perceptual experiences, and delusional thoughts.
probability of reproduction. This leads to a In extreme cases, this could also lead to
schizophrenia paradox since you would believe psychosis. But when there is more input of
that reduced reproduction would lead to the material into your conscious awareness,
disappearance of the risk genes from an reprocessed and recombined in novel/original
evolutionary point of view. Though, ways, this could also lead to creative ideas.
schizophrenia is still here hence the risk genes
are still here. Therefore there could also be a But why do most people with schizophrenia not
beneficial effect of these risk genes that would produce creative ideas? The ability to use
most probably manifest in healthy relatives, cognitive disinhibition creatively depends on the
such as creativity. They call this the “balancing presence of additional cognitive abilities
selection hypothesis”. This hypothesis says associated with a high level of functioning. These
that susceptibility alleles/risk gene variants things include evaluating your creative ideas
are also adaptive advantages that increase critically and realistically. To do this, you need a
fitness. This also fits with the study in which high IQ, and high working memory capacity.
the association with creativity peaks in first- Cognitive filtering is sensitive to this idea.
degree relatives of those with a mental
disorder, rather than in the patients How can you measure this cognitive filtering?
themselves. At the behavioural level, you could use a
neurocognitive test called, the latent inhibition
How can creativity be evolutionary task. At the brain level, you could use neuro-
advantageous? imaging studies. At the DNA level you could look
It gives you the ability to work out inventive at gene variants/polymorphism (are their genes
solutions for life-threatening conditions related to creativity?).
(clothing, fire, tools). It also has less functional
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