Exploring links between creative abilities, creative personality and subclinical autistic traits

Immersive and maladaptive daydreaming and divergent thinking in autism spectrum disorders

Little is known about the internal mental experiences of individuals with ASD. While some research suggests a limited capacity for imagination, other studies show heightened interest in fantasy and unique forms of creative thinking in ASD. This study explored daydreaming experiences in adults with ASD, with a focus on immersive daydreaming and its relation to divergent thinking abilities. Individuals with and without a diagnosis of ASD were surveyed on their daydreaming habits and completed a divergent thinking task. Experiences of immersive daydreaming were identified in 42% of adults with ASD and were related to broad ASD traits in those without a diagnosis of ASD. However, ASD diagnosis was unrelated to originality of divergent thinking, which was negatively associated with immersive daydreaming. Moreover, daydreaming experiences in ASD were diverse. A more nuanced understanding of the mental experiences in ASD may assist in the development of interventions and support for this population.

The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach

Cultural innovations, such as tools and other technical articles useful for survival, imply that creativity is an outcome of evolution. However, the existence of purely ornamental items obfuscates the functional value of creativity. What is the functional or adaptive value of aesthetic and intellectual ornaments? Recent evidence shows a connection between ornamental creativity, an individual's attractiveness, and their reproductive success. However, this association is not sufficient for establishing that creativity in humans evolved by sexual selection. In this critical review, we synthesize findings from many disciplines about the mechanisms, ontogeny, phylogeny, and the function of creativity in sexual selection. Existing research indicates that creativity has the characteristics expected of a trait evolved by sexual selection: genetic basis, sexual dimorphism, wider variety in males, influence of sex hormones, dysfunctional expressions, an advantage in mating in humans and other animals, and psychological modules adapted to mating contexts. Future studies should investigate mixed findings in the existing literature, such as creativity not being found particularly attractive in a non-WEIRD society. Moreover, we identified remaining knowledge gaps and recommend that further research should be undertaken in the following areas: sexual and reproductive correlates of creativity in non-WEIRD societies, relationship between androgens, development, and creative expression, as well as the impact of ornamental, technical and everyday creativity on attractiveness. Evolutionary research should analyze whether being an evolved signal of genetic quality is the only way in which creativity becomes sexually selected and therefore passed on from generation to generation. This review has gone a long way toward integrating and enhancing our understanding of ornamental creativity as a possible sexual selected psychological trait.

Prepulse Inhibition and P50 Suppression in Relation to Creativity and Attention: Dispersed Attention Beneficial to Quantitative but Not Qualitative Measures of Divergent Thinking

The current study investigated whether lower sensory and sensorimotor gating were related to higher levels of creativity and/or attentional difficulties in a natural population of primary school children (9- to 13-year-old). Gating abilities were measured with P50 suppression and prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex (PPI). The final sample included 65 participants in the P50 analyses and 37 participants in the PPI analyses. Our results showed that children with a high P50 amplitude to testing stimuli scored significantly higher on the divergent outcome measures of fluency and flexibility but not originality compared to children with a lower amplitude. No significant differences were found on any of the creativity measures when the sample was split on average PPI parameters. No significant differences in attention, as measured with a parent questionnaire, were found between children with low or high levels of sensory or sensorimotor gating. The data suggest that quantitative, but not qualitative measures of divergent thinking benefit from lower psychophysiological gating and that attentional difficulties stem from specific instead of general gating deficits. Future studies should take the effect of controlled attention into consideration.

Autism, autistic traits and creativity: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Psychometric, historiometric and psychiatric studies are controversial on a hypothetical link between psychopathology and creativity. In this study, we will try to contribute to this debate by analysing the case of autism. Is there a relationship between autism and creativity? If so, can we find the same relationship in a watered-down form in subjects with autistic traits? In order to answer these questions, we carried out a systematic literature review of the studies on this topic published in the last 10 years. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We also conducted a meta-analysis of data. We found that in the clinical population there are fewer creative performances than in control groups; nonetheless, it is possible to delineate a medium creative profile of subjects with autism. The average creative profile of people with autism shows that they are inhibited in fluency and flexibility, but that they display a high level of detail and a particularly high level of originality in works either generated during tests or created in private time. In particular, the level of detail reached in the latter condition seems to be higher in the autistic population than in the control groups. Better linguistic skills appear to be linked to better creative performances. Linguistic tests, if compared with visual and performative tests, seem to favour the expression of originality in subjects with autism. Although our data on autistic traits are compatible with the hypothesis that a high level of autistic traits is a watered-down replica of the cognitive profile of subjects with autism, we have no sufficient data to support this hypothesis.