Highly Sensitive Trait and Ectomorphism: Another Link on Creativity and Psychopathology

Abstract

Dear Editor: In a 2011 article1 published in The CJP, the author did not mention the pioneer work on creativity, introversion, and highly sensitive psychological traits introduced by Elaine N Aron and colleagues (see Aron and Aron2 and Aron et al3) from the late 1990s. These authors have not only found links on highly sensitive traits, introversion, higher sensory-processing sensitivity, and low brain latent inhibition,2,3 but also suggested that increased creativity and schizophrenia spectrum tendencies relate to highly sensitive people. Another apparent missing concept in Carson's1 manuscript regarding creativity is ectomorphism.4 Specifically, the ancient Eastern science of Ayurveda and the Western constitutional psychology relate the ectomorphic somatotype or vata4,5 with higher sensory-processing sensitivity, introversion, and creativity; whereas, people with an ectomorphic somatotype have a tendency to show symptoms of schizophrenia, depression, and a restless mind when they are out of balance.4,5 In this regard, Aron et al,3 Kagan and Snidman,6 and Herbener et al7 additionally showed that inhibited high reactive children were more likely to possess a tall, lean body mass, narrow face, and light blue eyes than uninhibited children. Therefore, the highly sensitive trait and ectomorphism are 2 additional candidates for vulnerability factors in the creativity and psychopathology model described by Carson.1 Moreover, recent neuropsychological studies demonstrating a link between temperament and neurophysiology are not directly mentioned in Carson's manuscript.1 In this sense, quantitative variables, such as sympathetic tone variations in the cardiovascular system,6 as well as sensory perception parameters, such as olfactory,7 trigeminal, tactile,8 and gustatory threshold and detection,9 are envisioned to detect new possible vulnerability or protective factors in the psychopathology model of creativity. We consider that the above-mentioned missing pieces in Carson's manuscript must be taken into account from now on in theoretical and practical grounds, to advance the field of human psychopathology and creativity.