Artistic Endeavour and Schizophrenia: The Connection found in Edinburgh

Salvador Dali's mental disorders were also the key to his creativity. (Image: Philippe Halsman)

We are all familiar with the stereotype view of the tortured artist. Salvador Dali's various disorders and Sylvia Plath's depression, spring to mind. Now new research seems to show why: a genetic mutation linked to psychosis and schizophrenia also influences creativity.

The finding could help to explain why mutations that increase a person's risk of developing mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar syndrome have been preserved, even preferred, during human evolution, says Szabolcs Kéri, a researcher at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, who carried out the study.

Kéri examined a gene involved in brain development called neuregulin 1, which previous studies have linked to a slightly increased risk of schizophrenia. Moreover, a single DNA letter mutation that affects how much of the neuregulin 1 protein is made in the brain has been linked to psychosis, poor memory and sensitivity to criticism.

About 50 per cent of healthy Europeans have one copy of this mutation, while 15 per cent possess two copies.

Creative thinking

To determine how these variations affect creativity, Kéri genotyped 200 adults who responded to adverts, seeking creative and accomplished volunteers. He also gave the volunteers two tests of creative thinking, and devised an objective score of their creative achievements, such as filing a patent or writing a book.

People with two copies of the neuregulin 1 mutation – about 12 per cent of the study participants – tended to score notably higher on these measures of creativity, compared with other volunteers with one or no copy of the mutation. Those with one copy were also judged to be more creative, on average, than volunteers without the mutation. All told, the mutation explained between 3 and 8 per cent of the differences in creativity, Kéri says.

Exactly how neuregulin 1 affects creativity isn't clear. Volunteers with two copies of the mutation were no more likely than others to possess so-called schizotypal traits, such as paranoia, odd speech patterns and inappropriate emotions. This would suggest that the mutation's connection to mental illness does not entirely explain its link to creativity, Kéri says.

Dampening the brain

Rather, Kéri speculates that the mutation dampens a brain region that reins in mood and behaviour, called the prefrontal cortex. This change could unleash creative potential in some people and psychotic delusions in others.

Intelligence could be one factor that determines whether the neuregulin 1 mutation boosts creativity or contributes to psychosis. Kéri's volunteers tended to be smarter than average. In contrast, another study of families with a history of schizophrenia found that the same mutation was associated with lower intelligence and psychotic symptoms.

"My clinical experience is that high-IQ people with psychosis have more intellectual capacity to deal with psychotic experiences," Kéri says. "It's not enough to experience those feelings, you have to communicate them."

Intelligence's influence

Jeremy Hall, a geneticist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK who uncovered the link between the neuregulin 1 mutation and psychosis, agrees that the gene's effects are probably influenced by cognitive factors such as intelligence.

This doesn't mean that psychosis and creativity are the same, though. "There's always been this slightly romantic idea that madness and genius are the flipside to the same coin. How much is that true? Madness is often madness and doesn't have as much genetic association with intelligence," Hall says.

Bernard Crespi, a behavioural geneticist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, is holding his applause for now. "This is a very interesting study with remarkably strong results, though it must be replicated in an independent population before the results can be accepted with confidence," he says.