People with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) are naturally more creative because they let their mind wander, according to a study presented at the ECNP congress in Amsterdam.
“Previous research pointed to mind wandering as a possible factor linking ADHD and creativity, but until now, no study has directly examined this connection. We conducted two studies, utilising two different groups of ADHD patients and healthy controls, one from a European group curated by the ECNP, and a second study from a UK group. In total, there were 750 participants. Separately analysing results from 2 independent groups means that we can have greater confidence in the results”, said lead researcher Han Fang from the Radboud University Medical Centre, in the Netherlands.
The team assessed the correlations between ADHD characteristics, creativity, and functional impairments and the role of mind wandering. Patients in both groups expressed classic ADHD characteristics, such as lack of attention, impulsivity, and the tendency to let one’s mind wander away from the subject at hand.
Mind wandering is shifting attention away from the task toward internally generated thoughts. Everyone is subject to a certain amount of mind wandering, but this is more frequent in people with ADHD. Usually, the more ADHD symptoms patients have, the more likely they are to let their minds wander.
“Previous researchers have been able to distinguish two different types of mind wandering. It can be a loss of concentration, where your mind may drift from subject to subject. This is ‘spontaneous mind-wandering’. Another type is ‘deliberate mind wandering’, where people give themselves the freedom to drift off-subject and ‘allow their thoughts to take a different course’. Psychiatrists have developed ways of measuring how much people are subject to these different tendencies”, added Han Fang.
The authors also evaluated creativity in both groups using standard methods, such as asking people to find a creative use for an everyday object. They then looked at how creativity was associated with the different types of mind wandering.
“We found that people with more ADHD traits, such as lack of attention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity, score higher on creative achievements in both studies. This supports previous research. Additionally, we found that mind wandering, particularly deliberate mind wandering, where people allow their “thoughts to wander on purpose”, was associated with greater creativity in people with ADHD. This suggests that mind wandering may be an underlying factor connecting ADHD and creativity,” said Dr Han Fang.
“This may have practical implications for both psychoeducation and treatment. For psychoeducation, specially designed programs or courses that teach individuals how to utilize their spontaneous ideas, for example, turning them into creative outputs, could help individuals with ADHD traits harness the benefits of mind wandering. For treatment, ADHD-tailored mindfulness-based interventions that seek to decrease spontaneous mind wandering or transform it into more deliberate forms may reduce functional impairments and enhance treatment outcomes. This is the first time this link has been investigated, so we need to see more studies which confirm the findings”.