In the final chapter of NOT A CHIMP I talk about fresh research that has breathed life into much older ideas about the link between mania and creativity. Here a group of Scandinavian scientists carry the story still further with the discovery that highly creative people and schizophrenics have similar profiles of dopamine D2 receptors in the brain - particularly the thalamus (which acts as a filter for incoming material from the senses which is then passed on to neo-cortical structures for advanced processing). Schizophrenics and creatives have a lower density of D2 receptors in the thalamus, suggesting that this causes the thalamus to be less strict in its signal filtering. There is therefore a higher flow of signals from the thalamus which might, says the article, "be a possible mechanism behind the ability of healthy highly creative people to see numerous uncommon connections in a problem-solving situation and the bizarre associations found in the mentally ill".
As lead scientist Fredrik Ullen, explains: "Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box (the thalamus)".
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