Scientists reveal a fascinating neurocognitive trait linked to heightened creativity

On the other hand, research in neuroplasticity4 suggests that our brains’ wiring is actually quite malleable, and that creativity itself plays a key role in maintaining this malleability — meaning that the more we draw on our creativity, the more our creativity grows.

Between 1990 and 1995, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his students exhaustively studied ninety-one exceptional innovators. “If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others,” Csikszentmihalyi noted in Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, “it would be complexity. By this I mean that they sh

“Creative people are better at recognizing relationships, making associations and connections.”

All of her patients had unusual patterns of high and low levels of ability, what Sukhareva called ‘a mixture of finesse and silliness’.

Brinkman’s personality was a case study in one of the most well-known findings in the history of creativity research: Creative people have messy minds. Creative people also tend to have messy processes.

high Neuroticism is correlated with high achievement and creativity in people whose other traits keep them from falling into the deep hole that can be dug by persistent emotional distress.