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.
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.
