People with ADHD may be more creative because they let their minds wander

New research confirms that ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) can be linked to increased creativity and suggests that this creativity is associated with a greater tendency to let your mind wander. This first study to explain the link between ADHD and creativity is presented at the ECNP Congress in Amsterdam.

Lead researcher Han Fang (from the Radboud University Medical Center, the Netherlands) said, “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 characteristics, creativity, and functional impairments and the role of mind-wandering in those links. Both patient groups showed classic ADHD characteristics, such as lack of attention, impulsivity, and the tendency to let one’s mind wander away from the subject in hand. Both studies showed that more ADHD symptoms were correlated with more mind-wandering.

Mind-wandering is defined as shifting attention away from the task at hand toward internally generated thoughts. Everyone is subject to a certain amount of mind-wandering, but this is seen more in people 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 also measured creativity in both groups (there are standard ways of measuring this, for example, by 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.

Dr. Fang said, “We found that people with more ADHD traits, such as lack of attention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity scored 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.

“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.”

Commenting, K.P. Lesch (Professor of Molecular Psychiatry, University of Würzburg, Germany) said, “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.”