A quirky or socially awkward approach to life might be the key
to becoming a great artist, composer or inventor. New
research shows that people who behave oddly, but are not
psychotic or schizophrenic, are more creative because they
use more of the right side of their brains. Psychologists
believe that famous creative people, including Vincent Van
Gogh, Albert Einstein, Emily Dickinson and Isaac Newton, had
what they call schizotypal personalities.
Psychologists Brad Folley and Sohee Park conducted two
experiments to compare the creative thinking processes of
schizotypes, schizophrenics and normal control subjects. In
the first experiment, the researchers showed research
subjects a variety of household objects and asked them to
make up new functions for them. The results showed that the
schizotypes were better able to creatively suggest new uses
for the objects, while the schizophrenics and average
subjects performed similarly to one another.
"Thought processes for individuals with schizophrenia are
often very disorganized, almost to the point where they can't
really be creative because they cannot get all of their
thoughts coherent enough to do that," says
Folley. "Schizotypes, on the other hand, are free from the
severe, debilitating symptoms surrounding schizophrenia and
also have an enhanced creative ability."
Brain scans showed that all groups used both brain
hemispheres for creative tasks, but that the schizotypes use
of that side of the brain was dramatically greater than that of
the others. The right side has been identified as the part of
the brain where creativity originates.
Swiss neuroscientist Peter Brugger has found that everyday
associations, such as recognizing your car key on your key
chain, as well as verbal abilities, are controlled by the left
hemisphere, and that novel associations, such as finding a
new use for a object or navigating a new place, are
controlled by the right hemisphere. A disproportional number
of schizotypes and schizophrenics are neither right nor left
hand dominant, but use both hands for a variety of tasks,
suggesting that they use both sides of their brains for a
variety of tasks more often than the average person does.
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