Article: Creativity linked to mental illness; ingenuity stems from openness.(Outliers)(Brief Article)

Psychologists from the University of Toronto and Harvard University have identified one of the biological bases of creativity: The brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment.

A process called "latent inhibition" might shut out some information from other people's brains that creative people's brains accept. Latent inhibition is an unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown to be irrelevant to one's needs. Psychological testing has demonstrated that creative people are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition.

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"This means that creative individuals ...

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