By Paul Rodgers
Vincent Van Gogh famously combined genius and madness, and evidence for a link between these two characteristics is mounting.
Both highly creative people and schizophrenics are able to make unusual or bizarre associations, and highly creative skills are more common among people who have mentally ill relatives. They are also at a slightly higher statistical risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Self-portrait of Van Gogh with ear cut off
Now scientists have proposed a possible explanation for the link between mental health and creativity. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm have shown that the way dopamine works in highly creative people is similar to the pattern seen in schizophrenics.
“Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box,” said Dr Fredrik Ullen, an associate professor in the department of women’s and children’s health at the institute.
“We have studied the brain and the dopamine D2 receptors, and have shown that the dopamine system of healthy, highly creative people is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia,” he said.
The study measured the creativity of healthy individuals by giving them a “divergent test” – a task for which they had to find many different solutions.
“Creative people who did well on the divergent tests had a lower density of D2 receptors in the thalamus than less creative people,” Dr Ullen said. “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 sits between the cerebral cortex and the midbrain. It relays sensations and motor signals and is involved in consciousness, sleep and alertness. The cortex in turn is responsible 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,” Dr Ullen said. This, he argued, could explain why creative people see so many possible solutions to problems, as well as the bizarre associations formed in the minds of the mentally ill.