Quantcast
ZME Science
  • CoronavirusNEW
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
Home Health & Medicine Genetics

Mad genius reddux: study suggest link between psychosis and creativity

Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei
October 28, 2013
in Genetics, Health & Medicine, Studies
ADVERTISEMENT

History is just teeming with examples of brilliant artists that acted in very peculiar ways – to put it lightly. They were absolutely brilliant, and they were absolutely mad; how can this be? Well, according to a new study published in Psychological Science the two traits often go hand in hand.

mad genius

In order to gather information on this, Szabolcs Kéri of Semmelweis University in Hungary directed his search on ‘neuregulin 1’, a gene responsible for strengthening and communication between the neurons and other brain processes. They were especially interested in a variant of this gene associated with a greater risk of developing mental disorders.

ADVERTISEMENT

The way they conducted this study was quite interesting; they recruited volunteers who think of themselves as being very creative and they moved on to assessing their creativity (and intelligence). I was unable to find the full tests they used, but evaluating someone’s creativity seems to be quite a task; they used questions such as “Just suppose clouds had strings attached to them which hang down to earth. What would happen?”, and volunteers were rated based on the flexibility of their answers. They were also asked to note their lifetime creative achievements (which may or may not be relevant, if you ask me).

Get more science news like this...

Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40,000 subscribers can't be wrong.

   

The results showed a clear link between neuregulin 1 and creativity, as volunteers with the specific variants of the gene had a way bigger chance of scoring higher in the creativity assessment and also their lifetime achievements were more significant. Hungarian researchers also note that this study can also have some beneficial functions, explaining that “molecular factors that are loosely associated with severe mental disorders but are present in many healthy people may have an advantage enabling us to think more creatively.”. If accurate, this study can also show that certain genetic variations with negative effects can bypass evolutionary selection if they also have some beneffic effects.

Tags: braingenegeneticspsychosisResearchstudy
Mihai Andrei

Mihai Andrei

Andrei's background is in geophysics, and he's been fascinated by it ever since he was a child. Feeling that there is a gap between scientists and the general audience, he started ZME Science -- and the results are what you see today.

Follow ZME on social media

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
  • More

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.