BUDAPEST, Hungary, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A psychiatric expert in Hungary suggests a gene linked to psychosis may have a positive effect: creativity.
Szabolcs Keri of Semmelweis University in Budapest links a variant of neuregulin 1 gene to creativity in people with high intellectual and academic performance.
The highest creative achievements and creative-thinking scores were found in people who carried the T/T genotype previously shown to be related to a greater risk of developing mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Keri says.
The study, published in Psychological Science, finds those volunteers with the specific variant of neuregulin 1 gene more likely to score higher on the creativity assessment test and have greater lifetime creative achievements than volunteers with a different form of the gene
"Molecular factors that are loosely associated with severe mental disorders, but are present in many healthy people may have an advantage enabling us to think more creatively," Keri says in a statement.
