Highly sensitive people: latent inhibition and creativity
One aspect of high sensitivity is increased sensory input. There are some intriguing research studies on how this works at the level of the brain and nervous system, and how it affects creative ability.
photo credit: LeTigerA study in the September 2003 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (titled “Decreased Latent Inhibition Is Associated With Increased Creative Achievement in High-Functioning Individuals” – see PDF) found that the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment.
A University of Toronto press release noted, “Other people’s brains might shut out this same information through a process called ‘latent inhibition’ – defined as an animal’s unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs.
“Through psychological testing, the researchers showed that creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition.
“This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the extra information constantly streaming in from the environment,” says co-author and University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson.
From article Creative people more open to stimuli from environment.
The Eide Neurolearning Blog post titled The Biology of Creativity – Right Hemispheric Thinking, Problem Solving by Insight, and Diffuse Attention refers to studies on attentional style and creativity, including a Northwestern University study that references the above “Decreased Latent Inhibition…” paper and notes, “…psychometric measures of creativity and measures of real-world creative achievement are associated with a habitual tendency toward diffuse rather than focused attention, which results in ineffective filtering of distracting or irrelevant environmental stimuli.”
Elizabeth Mika (director of Gifted Resources in Northern Illinois) has commented that this study and other research in clinical psychology and psychiatry support psychiatrist Kazimierz Dabrowski’s conclusions on the relationship between creativity and overexcitability (not called that in the studies). See her article Theory of Positive Disintegration as a Model of Personality Development For Exceptional Individuals.
Overwhelm and overload
But overexcitability and the related phenomenon of decreased neural inhibition can result in overload and even disorder.
In his recent Psychology Today blog Beautiful Minds, in the post Schizophrenic Thought: Madness or Potential for Genius?, Scott Barry Kaufman comments on this dark side of high sensitivity.
“Throughout our daily lives we experience an influx of emotions, sensations, and sounds,” he writes. “If we had to consciously decide at all times what to ignore and what to pay attention to, we would quickly become overstimulated.
“This ability to screen things out of awareness that were previously tagged as irrelevant is called latent inhibition. Latent inhibition has a strong biological basis and operates automatically to filter out information.
“Those high in latent inhibition are very good at this inhibition. Those with a reduced latent inhibition have a difficult time with this form of inhibition. Reduced latent inhibition has been associated with schizophrenia as well as a predisposition to psychosis.”
Creativity
But, he adds, “Recently researchers have wondered whether a reduced latent inhibition can actually be beneficial for creativity.
“After all, decreased LI may make an individual more likely to see connections that others may not notice. Prominent psychologists such as Hans Eysenck and Colin Martindale have argued for the importance of disinhibition for creative thought.
“Indeed, research conducted by fellow PT blogger Shelley Carson and her colleagues have found among a sample of Harvard students that those with a high IQ and decreased LI tended to report increased creative achievement.”
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The lower image is from an edition of The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley.
Related post: Genes and the startle response.
Related book by the authors of The Eide Neurolearning Blog: The Mislabeled Child: How Understanding Your Child’s Unique Learning Style Can Open the Door to Success, by Drs. Brock Eide and Fernette Eide.
As an HSP, I identify with having decreased LI. And I imagine most HSPs would. Even when we would very much like to filter out excess stimuli from our environments, our nervous systems keep feeding us the data and sensory inputs… regardless if we feel quite full. So, it seems since we don’t have access to *inner* LI, we place special emphasis on *outer* LI — we create sanctuaries for ourselves… quiet spaces… regenerative nooks where we can give our neurons a much needed break.
This was a very thought-provoking article. Thank you for it, and all of the treasures here.
Erika Harris
http://www.joyful-work-for-sensitive-people.com/
This explains a lot for me. But I have no special talent for art or music. I have a knack for problem-solving quickly. I am super sensitve to smells and touch.
I enjoined reading the article.
This latent inhibition business is quite interesting for me. I am an INFP under the Meyers-Briggs and also an HSP.
There are a number of articles out there saying that the condition of Low Latent Inhibition is not desirable, it is attributed to higher levels of mental illness, it causes discomfort, etc. I have come to determine that my LI levels are not quite as low as they are implied by this description, but that they must be far lower than the average person.
I’ve just been out walking in nature with another person and I can only surmise they can’t quite imagine what a beautiful catharsis it was for me. Just being out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by life itself – the grass giving way under one’s feet, the myriad insects scrambling to feed, the sounds of bird and wildlife reverberating across the plains… christ, even the lake seemed alive, with its velvety smooth surface interacting with the ducks floating across it in an almost playful manner, the breeze caressing my skin as I watched, I don’t know.
I can’t imagine that my LI is low enough to cause me discomfort (though overly fidgety and loud people annoy me a lot), but -something- triggers a certain creative way of thinking in me, which is beautiful and inspiring, but also frustrating as I couldn’t possibly share the experience with anyone who doesn’t understand.
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The first time I ever took an IQ test, I truly did not know what I was looking at. I was in high school and although it said I was well above average, my only thought was to complete the assignment for my teacher. I turned it in not caring enough to understand it fully, and the teacher never explained what my score actually meant. I’m explaining this because I recently took quite a few IQ tests, with the scores averaging around 152 and higher, but it was my reasoning behind taking the tests that is more interesting…You see I was a child of domestic violence, I believe the only reason I survived the situation was because I was intelligent enough to recognize it and evolve from it. However, due to my predisposition for mental illness given my background, when I began to “break” it was automatically assumed just that…mental illness…myself included. I tried taking medications for depression, different types of psychotics, sleeping pills, mood regulators-it was ridiculous and I don’t even like to take medications, trying very hard to deal with the “episodes” myself. It is funny though because after I took the IQ tests, (the first was for fun-the following were because I was amazed by the first) I began looking up mental illness and high IQ scores and most do not have strong correlations (mind you I’ve done a lot of research on bipolar and schizophrenia disorders and even though I have some of those symptoms, to many do not even remotely sound like what I live with)…with the exception of latent inhibition and highly sensitive people. After reading countless articles my perception has changed remarkably, you see I have also been a dancer (ballet-stop thinking dirty) since I was three winning almost every competition I was ever in, including states and nationals. I also can pick up any instrument and teach myself to play just by watching someone else play, pick up a pen and duplicate any picture in front of me, sing (but only to myself…not sure why), and one of my other favorites is my poetry-my ability to put down exactly what I mean and how I feel during the moment it’s written. With that said, I also cannot filter out anything, I am highly aware of everything around me at all times in my environment, and when it comes to people this includes all non-verbals and the meanings to everything verbal. I do not hear voices and I don’t see things that aren’t there, but I am truly oversensitive, wanting to help and please others with no expectations in return except kindness. Of course if that doesn’t happen it’s truly the most painful thing in the world, not to mention if I lose someone (move away, die, etc.) I also cannot control my anger, depression, or have the ability to let things go (I dwell on things that happen years ago, it can be the abuse or things I have no control over, things I think I will get in trouble for or fight over; causing anxiety and sleeplessness) which I always assumed inherited, in fact most of its assumed inherited, or a trait from being abused for more than 1/2 my life. I cannot say what I am dealing with, but I’ve seen countless psychologists and psychiatrists with little to no success except more medication recommendations (mind you not one of these individuals ever did any IQ or intelligence tests of any kind). I like the woman I’ve been seeing for a while, she doesn’t go directly to meds, but I think even she isn’t sure what to do with my situation other than to medicate now. I don’t know anyone in my area that can define my underlying condition, and since this was the closest thing I could find to what sounds like a plausible start to a solution, I thought I’d reach out…expecting nothing, hoping for anything useful.