Does Genius Have a Genetic Advantage? Experts Say "Yes" (With Slight Psychotic Side Effects)

One of the most important discoveries in human history is how we’re really a couple of pounds of gooey jelly inside our own skulls.  Since then we’ve been working on exactly how we come to be us: from the psychology of our upbringings, to the chemicals that control our mood, to the recent analysis of the fundamental genetic design of the wiring.  Now a study shows that we have a simple “Creative Psychopath ON/OFF” switch, and whether you find that interesting or not might be related to whether it applies to you.

Psychiatrist Szabolcs Kéri of Semmelweis University studied a group of test subjects, which always sounds ominous when both the mind and genetics are involved, comparing their creativity and genetic wiring to see if there was any correlation.  Counting creativity might sound like weighing a rainbow, so here’s a quick question: “What would you do if clouds had ropes hanging down from them?”  Got an answer?  If not, you’re not so creative.  If you are you’re probably the sort of person who can write questions like that for his study.

The study showed that those with a genetic variant of neuregulin 1 (which sounds like the sort of chemical you’d see in “Equilibrium”) tended to be more creative.  This gene affects the development of the brain, is known to be polymorphic (there’s more than one variation of it which works), and only has the slight side-effect of the variant is linked to psychoses, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

This makes sense.  Any variation in the genetic program in building a brain is bound to affect how the resulting person thinks - to say otherwise is to say your car will work the same even if you put a different parts in the engine.  Creative “geniuses” see things that other people don’t, and often ignore the conventional rules of how things are “normally” done in society to create new ideas.  Psychotics also often ignore the commonly accepted rules (with considerably uncooler results).

It’s another great step towards understanding the greatest mystery of all - us - and will pose very serious questions in the future of mankind.  Because when we’re designing our offspring to be healthy, happy, and free of all genetic disorders, there’s going to be this little toggle which could make things much more interesting.  

Luke McKinney

Mad Geniuses