"The dopamine system of healthy, highly creative people is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia"
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low D2 receptor density (not to be mistaken with D3) is correlated to creativity
low protein high carb diet decreases D2 receptor density
antipsychotic medicine increases D2 density and lowers dopamine, so one can argue that high baseline dopamine reduces D2 density
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More evidence for the schizo <-> autism spectrum.
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@pittybitty are you implying autism is the opposite of schizophrenia?
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@sunsunsun Indeed. If you imagine for a second our thoughts as interconnected factoids and connections between the factoids. Schizophrenic have very lateral thinking, they make connections between very distant, unrelated factoids. Autists on the other hand have very narrow thinking, they don't see connections between unrelated things at all. That allows them to hyperfixate on just one thing covering a lot of ground but only in one direction. That's the two extremes, a true schizophrenic might be too eager to make connections that aren't actually there, that's what can make them delusional while a true autist is unable to make the connections in the first place even when they are there, not understanding implied context.
Then there is shizo-adjacent and autism-adjacent people who have strong lateral or linear thinking capabilities but don't have the same shortcomings of a true autist or a true shizo.
And finally In the middle you have normies.
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The voice inside your head is not your own, its external.
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@pittybitty oscillating between the two as required at will is probably the best and then living in the middle for balance and health otherwise
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@pittybitty Both autism and schizophrenia show right-hemisphere deficits, so they aren't really at opposite ends of a spectrum in that sense.
People with schizophrenia rely excessively on the left-hemisphere mode of perceiving and thinking. They can't see the whole and instead try to build the world from separate pieces. This applies to both their experience of themselves and of the external world. This is what makes them delusional: a lack of grounding in the real, embodied and intuitive world, and an excessive reliance on rational, narrow-focused thinking.
Related video for more info:
Youtube Video@pittybitty said in "The dopamine system of healthy, highly creative people is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia":
Then there is shizo-adjacent and autism-adjacent people who have strong lateral or linear thinking capabilities but don't have the same shortcomings of a true autist or a true shizo.
And finally In the middle you have normies.
My lateral thinking and linear thinking are both better than average, so I can say from my own experience that there isn't a spectrum between people with good lateral thinking and people with good linear thinking, at least not in ability.
Perhaps there is in preference or bias for one over the other, and perhaps people who are good at one are often also worse at the other. But, again, no real spectrum between them in terms of ability.
The left hemisphere of the brain is more sensitive to dopamine. Therefore a large increase in dopamine could shift hemispheric balance more in favor of the left hemisphere. But dopamine plays a role in the right hemisphere too.
I think the important thing here is to get the right hemisphere to be more influential in the experience of reality. That way, someone could have higher levels of dopamine without being psychotic. Perhaps the healthy creative people rely naturally more on their right hemispheres compared to schizophrenics, and so the same amount of dopaminergic activity that might be causing schizophrenic people problems is beneficial for the healthy people.
Perhaps a connection here with 5-HT2A, the activation of which increases dopamine, but it does other things too.
Thread: Psychosis and serotonins 5ht2a receptor , HDAC and chronic anti-psychotic useThe same neurotransmitter can lead to different effects depending on where in the brain it is, and a neurotransmitter could be elevated in one area while low in another. To understand neurotransmitters well, it's important to know about more than just neurotransmitters and receptors. Perhaps this feels obvious, but it seems like a lot of people don't keep that in mind while talking/writing about and reading about neurotransmitters.
You need to understand the whole to understand the parts.
There are different isoforms of the D2 receptor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine_receptor_D2#Isoforms
One of them is an autoreceptor and reduces dopamine when activated
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoreceptor -
@lobotomize-me said in "The dopamine system of healthy, highly creative people is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia":
low D2 receptor density (not to be mistaken with D3) is correlated to creativity
low protein high carb diet decreases D2 receptor density
Interesting finding! Thanks for sharing!
BTW, a lower degree of signal filtering is technically referred to as Reduced Latent Inhibition (RLI) and Reduced Inattentional Blindness (RIB).
I've asked ChatGPT about their roles:
Dimension Reduced Latent Inhibition (RLI) Reduced Inattentional Blindness (RIB) Filtering Type Stimulus pre-processing filter—selective tuning at the perceptual/cognitive threshold Attentional spotlight filter—selective tuning within focused attention Default Role Prevents distraction by familiar/unimportant inputs Prevents distraction from peripheral/unexpected events Neural Basis Linked to dopaminergic modulation, especially in mesolimbic pathways (e.g. nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex) Linked to fronto-parietal attentional networks, including dorsal and ventral attentional systems Associated Traits Creativity, schizophrenia, high openness to experience, ADHD, genius-madness continuum Hypervigilance, mindfulness, elite perceptual-cognitive performance (e.g. pilots, special forces) Cognitive Mode Associative, divergent—binds unrelated stimuli, sees patterns and novel links Alert, convergent—detects anomalies within or outside the focus of attention Potential Downside Overstimulation, chaotic associations, psychosis risk Sensory overload, hypervigilance, burnout, possibly anxiety States That Induce It Psychedelics (esp. LSD, psilocybin), manic states, creative flow Mindfulness training, certain psychedelics (e.g. ayahuasca), trauma hyperarousal, combat readiness Function in Evolution Exploratory, useful in novel problem-solving or innovation Survival-enhancing in threat detection or awareness of predators/anomalies -
@lobotomize-me said in "The dopamine system of healthy, highly creative people is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia":
antipsychotic medicine increases D2 density and lowers dopamine, so one can argue that high baseline dopamine reduces D2 density
BTW, I had some doubts about the statement above, so I've asked gpt to refine it...
"Antipsychotics block D2 receptors, which can lead the brain to upregulate D2 density over time. This suggests that the brain responds to dopamine levels dynamically: when dopamine signaling is low (due to receptor blockade), D2 density may increase; when dopamine signaling is chronically high, the brain may compensate by reducing D2 receptor density. Thus, baseline dopamine levels may influence D2 receptor availability through feedback mechanisms."
