Genius and Madness
Creativity and psychosis go hand in hand, neurophysiologists have proved
A large-scale genetic study has shown that gene variants associated with genius and creativity largely coincide with those versions of similar DNA fragments that are associated with increased exposure to schizophrenia and manic–depressive psychosis, scientists say in an article published in the journal Nature Neuroscience (Polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder predict creativity - VM).
"In our laboratory, we use modern genetic tools to study how our brain works. The results we have obtained should not surprise anyone, since creative people always think differently from the rest of humanity, and we have shown in our previous studies that there are variants associated with schizophrenia in their DNA," said Kari Stefansson, president of deCODE genetics (in the article The Guardian New study claims to find genetic link between creativity and mental illness – VM).
Stefannson and her colleagues have been combining and analyzing the results of large-scale genetic studies for several years, trying to find genetic factors associated with predisposition to schizophrenia, migraines, genius and other things whose nature remains unknown to neurophysiologists.
Over the past 10 years, they have made several interesting discoveries. In 2006, her research team found genes associated with the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, in 2009 – DNA sections that determine the time of menopause in a woman, as well as genes associated with schizophrenia and genius at the same time, and in 2013 – fragments of the genetic code responsible for the onset of migraine.
In their new work, geneticists from deCODE describe the results of the analysis of small mutations in the DNA of over 86 thousand inhabitants of Iceland. After studying the structure of their genes, the scientists compared sets of single–nucleotide polymorphisms - "typos" with a length of one letter– a nucleotide - with what position they held and at what job they worked.
As this analysis showed, creativity was quite noticeably associated with the same genes that in previous studies Stefannson and her colleagues were associated with the development of manic-depressive psychosis, as well as, as it was found out in the course of previous studies, with schizophrenia.
According to the calculations of geneticists, the presence of "creative" mutations in DNA on average increased the chance of developing MDP by 30%, and schizophrenia by 200%. Similar results were observed both among artists and artists whom scientists studied separately, as well as among other genetic samples conducted among residents of Sweden and the Netherlands.
All this suggests, as Stefansson and her colleagues believe, that genius, creativity and mental disorders are inextricably linked to each other at the genetic level. This, in general, is not surprising, according to geneticists, if you look at Salvador Dali, Vincent Van Gogh and many other masters of culture and art who lived in their own world.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.06.2015