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New analysis confirms that ADHD (Consideration Deficit Hyperactivity Dysfunction) could be linked to elevated creativity and means that this creativity is related to a higher tendency to let your thoughts wander. This primary research to clarify the hyperlink between ADHD and creativity is introduced on the ECNP Congress in Amsterdam.
Lead researcher Han Fang (from the Radboud College Medical Middle, the Netherlands) mentioned, “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, utilizing 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 analyzing results from two independent groups means that we can have greater confidence in the results.”
The researchers examined the correlations between ADHD traits, creativity, and useful impairments and the function of mind-wandering in these hyperlinks. Each affected person teams confirmed basic ADHD traits, similar to lack of consideration, impulsivity, and the tendency to let one’s thoughts wander off from the topic in hand. Each research confirmed that extra ADHD signs have been correlated with extra mind-wandering.
Thoughts-wandering is outlined as shifting consideration away from the duty at hand towards internally generated ideas. Everyone seems to be topic to a specific amount of mind-wandering, however that is seen extra in folks with ADHD.
Dr. Fang added, “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, where they ‘allow their thoughts to take a different course.’ Psychiatrists have developed ways of measuring how much people are subject to these different tendencies.”
The researchers additionally measured creativity in each teams (there are normal methods of measuring this, for instance, by asking folks to discover a inventive use for an on a regular basis object). They then checked out how creativity was related to the several types of mind-wandering.
Dr. Fang mentioned, “We discovered that folks with extra ADHD traits, similar to lack of consideration, hyperactivity, or impulsivity scored greater on inventive achievements in each research. This helps earlier analysis. Moreover, we discovered that mind-wandering, significantly deliberate mind-wandering, the place folks enable their ideas to wander on function, was related to higher creativity in folks with ADHD. This implies that mind-wandering could also be an underlying issue connecting ADHD and creativity.
“This will likely have sensible implications for each psychoeducation and remedy. For psychoeducation, specifically designed packages or programs that train people the right way to make the most of their spontaneous concepts, for instance, turning them into inventive outputs, might assist people with ADHD traits harness the advantages 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.”
Commenting, Okay.P. Lesch (Professor of Molecular Psychiatry, College of Würzburg, Germany) mentioned, “Mind-wandering is one of the critical resources on which the remarkable creativity of high-functioning ADHD individuals is based. This makes them such an incredibly valuable asset for our society and the future of our planet.”
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European School of Neuropsychopharmacology
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Individuals with ADHD could also be extra inventive as a result of they let their minds wander (2025, October 10)
retrieved 10 October 2025
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