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9 - Latent inhibition and creativity

from Current topics in latent inhibition research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2010

By
Shelley Carson
Edited by
Robert Lubow  and
Ina Weiner
Robert Lubow
Affiliation:
Tel-Aviv University
Ina Weiner
Affiliation:
Tel-Aviv University
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Summary

Latent inhibition (LI) is a robust phenomenon in which repeated preexposure to a stimulus that is not reinforced retards future associability to that stimulus (Lubow,1989). LI has been uniformly accepted as an adaptive mechanism across a variety of species (Lubow & Gewirtz, 1995). In humans, a deficit in LI has been associated with the active phase of schizophrenia and with psychosis-proneness (Baruch, Hemsley, & Gray, 1988a, 1988b; Lubow, Ingberg-Sachs, Zalstein-Orda, & Gewirtz, 1992). However, attenuated LI has also been reported in non-disordered normal subjects (see Braunstein-Bercovitz, Rammsayer, Gibbons, & Lubow, 2002), suggesting that attenuated LI exists on a continuum that extends from hospitalized psychotics to high-functioning normals. Recent research suggests that there may be situations in which attenuated LI actually confers an advantage to individuals. There is a growing body of evidence that indicates attenuated LI may be present in a subset of high-functioning and creative individuals (e.g. Carson, Peterson, & Higgins, 2003; Peterson & Carson, 2000). Attenuated LI may increase the probability of making novel or original associations among disparate stimuli by increasing the amount of information available to conscious awareness.

The theoretical relationship of creativity and latent inhibition

Latent inhibition is widely accepted as an index of the ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli (Lubow & Kaplan, 2005). When latent inhibition is expressed, the ability to form associations to information deemed irrelevant is reduced. Conversely, when latent inhibition is attenuated, the ability to form associations to seemingly irrelevant information is expanded.

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Chapter
Information
Latent Inhibition
Cognition, Neuroscience and Applications to Schizophrenia
 , pp. 183 - 198
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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