The Genetics of Creativity: A Serendipitous Assemblage of Madness

Abstract

Creativity is a subject that has been relatively neglected in psychological research until recently. The difficulty in defining and measuring creativity has been a contributing factor to the small amount of research in this area to date. Recent interest in creativity is the link to psychopathology, which has sparked new methods of investigation into the nature of this syndrome, including MRI, PET, EEG, and neuroanatomical studies. Cognitive and Behavioral tasks are used in conjunction with these testing methods, which have allowed the possibility of molecular genetic research to probe the question of the heritability of creativity. These advancements in the methods in which we now define and measure creativity have brought us to an exciting time of learning about the true nature of creativity and its relationship to forms of psychopathology.

Keywords: Psychopathology, Creativity, Cognitive Neuroscience