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"It is true, and thus the question of whether it is sad or happy has no meaning whatever."
Bernhard Schlink



Science is best when discussed: leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments!!



Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Brilliance Type 1 

Vanderbilt researchers have, essentially, diagnosed brilliant and creative people as schizotypal personalities. In brain-scan tests, they found that schizoptypes had displayed greater right-hemisphere activation than did both control and schizophrenic subjects.

It is entirely possible that these results are good; they do come from a reputable institution and a good journal, though those things have become less and less convincing in recent years. It just seems that the definition of what is a 'creative' response is fairly subjective, and that there are many other factors involved. Schizophrenics, as I recall, tend to have lower brain activation overall for almost any task than do controls, so it might follow that they would have lower activation than schizotypes.

But I do like saying that you have to be a bit crazy to be brilliant. Makes me feel better.


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