ArticlePloS one2016
Dopamine and the Creative Mind: Individual Differences in Creativity Are Predicted by Interactions between Dopamine Genes DAT and COMT.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 99 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring the effect of microdosing psychedelics on creativity in an open-label natural setting.Psychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- Creativity beyond the isolated mind: toward a biopsychosocial and sociotechnical perspective.Frontiers in cognition · 2026Article
- A unifying theory of brain signaling and its possible role in acquired chronic disease.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Introducing the fusion innovation test as a new paradigm for studying realworld creative problem solving.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Dopaminergic and Noradrenergic Contributions to Divergent and Convergent Creativity Task Performance, a Systematic Review.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The human reward system encodes the subjective value of ideas during creative thinking.Communications biology · 2025Article
- The 7 Muses of Neuro-Creative Cycle: How some patients with Parkinson's disease can unleash latent creativity.AIMS neuroscience · 2025Article
- Neural, genetic, and cognitive signatures of creativity.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Hacking the Predictive Mind.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Creative thinking and cognitive estimation in Parkinson's disease.Neurological research and practice · 2024Article
- Nothing less than a creative triumph: a study of children admitted to hospital for serious somatic illness or injury and their experience of art therapy.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Dopamine supports idea originality: the role of spontaneous eye blink rate on divergent thinking.Psychological research · 2023Article
- Motor restrictions impair divergent thinking during walking and during sitting.Psychological research · 2022Article
- The Cerebellum and Beauty: The Impact of the Cerebellum in Art Experience and Creativity.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2022Article
- The sexual selection of creativity: A nomological approach.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Effects of stimulant medication on divergent and convergent thinking tasks related to creativity in adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.Psychopharmacology · 2021Article
- Blending oxytocin and dopamine with everyday creativity.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- An Experimental Approach to Investigate the Involvement of Cognitive Load in Divergent Thinking.Journal of Intelligence · 2021Article
- The SEEKING Drive and Its Fixation: A Neuro-Psycho-Evolutionary Approach to the Pathology of Addiction.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2021Review
- Gamma entrainment frequency affects mood, memory and cognition: an exploratory pilot study.Brain informatics · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The dopaminergic (DA) system may be involved in creativity, however results of past studies are mixed. We attempted to clarify this putative relation by considering the mediofrontal and the nigrostriatal DA pathways, uniquely and in combination, and their contribution to two different measures of creativity--an abbreviated version of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, assessing divergent thinking, and a real-world creative achievement index. We found that creativity can be predicted from interactions between genetic polymorphisms related to frontal (COMT) and striatal (DAT) DA pathways. Importantly, the Torrance test and the real-world creative achievement index related to different genetic patterns, suggesting that these two measures tap into different aspects of creativity, and depend on distinct, but interacting, DA sub-systems. Specifically, we report that successful performance on the Torrance test is linked with dopaminergic polymorphisms associated with good cognitive flexibility and medium top-down control, or with weak cognitive flexibility and strong top-down control. The latter is particularly true for the originality factor of divergent thinking. High real-world creative achievement, on the other hand, as assessed by the Creative Achievement Questionnaire, is linked with dopaminergic polymorphisms associated with weak cognitive flexibility and weak top-down control. Taken altogether, our findings support the idea that human creativity relies on dopamine, and on the interaction between frontal and striatal dopaminergic pathways in particular. This interaction may help clarify some apparent inconsistencies in the prior literature, especially if the genes and/or creativity measures were analyzed separately.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.