Creativity Assessment in Subjects with Tourette Syndrome vs. Patients with Parkinson’s Disease: A Preliminary Study
Tourette Syndrome Centre, Clinical and Research Galeazzi Hospital, Milan 20161, Italy
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Academic Editors: Kieron O’Connor and Marc Lavoie
Brain Sci. 2017, 7(7), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci7070080
Received: 3 February 2017 / Revised: 30 April 2017 / Accepted: 29 June 2017 / Published: 9 July 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cerebral Etiology and Treatment of the Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome)
(1) Background: Literature suggests that high levels of dopamine are associated with creative thoughts. Tourette Syndrome (TS) patients have high dopamine levels, while Parkinson’s Disease (PD) subjects have low dopamine levels. Consequently, TS individuals are supposed to have a major and PD patients less creative output. Moreover, dopamine medications may alter the level of creativity, and therefore Quality of Life, in both pathologies. (2) Methods: The aim of the study was to verify the hypothesis of TS patients having higher creative scores than PD patients. The assessment consisted of the administration of the Creative Thinking ASK Test. There were 54 participants—36 males and 18 females—i.e., 27 TS patients and 27 PD subjects. Age of the sample was 35 to 57 years old, high school certificate was required. (3) Results: TS sample (103.11 ASK average score) was more creative than PD sample (94.11 ASK average score). (4) Conclusions: The results supported the aforementioned hypothesis: TS sample resulted in having higher creative scores than PD sample. Dopamine and other neurotransmitters of TS and PS appear to affect subject’s creativity. Further studies with creative assessments in TS and PD patients are needed to support the preliminary results of our study.
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Keywords:
creativity; tic; Tourette syndrome; Parkinson disease
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MDPI and ACS Style
Zanaboni Dina, C.; Porta, M.; Saleh, C.; Servello, D. Creativity Assessment in Subjects with Tourette Syndrome vs. Patients with Parkinson’s Disease: A Preliminary Study. Brain Sci. 2017, 7, 80.
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