Abstract
Biographical and historical accounts suggest a link between scientific creativity and schizophrenia. Longitudinal studies of gifted children indicate that visuospatial imagery plays a pivotal role in exceptional achievements in science and mathematics. We asked whether visuospatial imagery is enhanced in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ). We compared SZ and matched healthy controls (HC) on five visuospatial tasks tapping parietal and frontoparietal functions. Two aspects of visuospatial transformation, spatial location and mental imagery manipulation were examined with Paper Folding Test (PFT) and jigsaw puzzle task (JPT), respectively. Visuospatial intelligence was assessed with Ravens Progressive Matrices, which is associated with frontoparietal network activity. Hemispatial inattention implicating parietal function was assessed with line bisection (LB) task. Mediated by prefrontal cortex, spatial delayed response task (DRT) was used to index working memory maintenance, which was impaired in SZ compared to HC. In contrast, SZ showed intact visuospatial intelligence and transformation of location. Further, SZ performed significantly better than HC on JPT indicating enhanced mental imagery manipulation. Spatial working memory (SWM) maintenance and mental imagery manipulation were strongly associated in HC but dissociated in SZ. Thus, we observed enhanced mental imagery manipulation in SZ but the dissociation of mental imagery from working memory suggests a disrupted frontoparietal network. Finally, while HC showed the expected leftward pseudoneglect, SZ showed increased rightward LB bias implicating left hemispatial inattention and impaired right parietal control of spatial attention. The current results chart a unique profile of impaired, spared and enhanced parietal-mediated visuospatial functions implicating parietal abnormalities as a biobehavioral marker for SZ. We discuss these results in relation to creative cognition.
Highlights
Two large-scale, longitudinal studies of gifted children in the past half-century have sought to answer the question of what lies at the core of exceptional abilities
We examine the link between mental imagery (MI), creativity and psychopathology to move beyond these fascinating anecdotal case studies and show why we need neuroscience to understand the origins of human creativity
Mental imagery is intimately linked to memory (Baddeley and Andrade, 2000), as depicted by the visuospatial sketchpad component of the dominant theory of working memory (Baddeley, 1992; Logie, 1995)
Summary
Two large-scale, longitudinal studies of gifted children in the past half-century have sought to answer the question of what lies at the core of exceptional abilities. Einstein’s special theory of relativity had its roots in a thought experiment that he had been visualizing since his adolescence As a boy, he wanted to know what a beam of light would look like if he could ride alongside it. A second unique feature of Einstein’s brain was the asymmetry and the size of his parietal cortex, which plays a central role in visuospatial functions, especially mental imagery, mathematical ability and multisensory processing. Falk and colleagues quote Einstein as describing his thoughts as an association of images and “feelings,” and that these thoughts were “muscular” in addition to visual Is it possible that the peculiarities of his brain allowed him to see, feel, touch, and move in his thoughts? Is it possible that the peculiarities of his brain allowed him to see, feel, touch, and move in his thoughts? While these structural anomalies cannot explain Einstein’s genius, it begs the question of the role of visuospatial mental imagery in extraordinary talent and giftedness
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