While not everyone with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is creative, there are a lot of creative people with neurodivergent brains. Now, new research suggests this could be due to the way our minds wander.

Radboud University Medical Centre researchers presented their new findings at the 38th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) annual congress in the Netherlands this month. And in the first study to look at how ADHD and creativity are connected, scientists believe it could be rooted in how often the neurodivergent mind wanders.

“Previous research pointed to mind wandering as a possible factor linking ADHD and creativity, but until now no study has directly examined this connection,” said lead researcher Han Fang from the Radboud University Medical Centre. “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.”

In those two ADHD groups, there were no major differences in symptoms – including high prevalence of inattention, impulsivity and focus issues. However, the participants in both groups who reported more severe symptoms also had a much higher incidence of “mind-wandering.”

Mind-wandering, as opposed to daydreaming, is when one’s attention shifts from the task at hand and they instead become more occupied by unrelated thoughts. While everyone experiences this, it’s a more frequent occurrence for people with ADHD.

“Previous researchers have been able to distinguish two different types of mind wandering,” Fang explained. “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 matched the mind-wandering data with creativity scores for participants in each of the groups. There are several ways that creativity is gauged, given that it’s such a broad concept. But it can generally be measured using tests that demonstrate inventiveness and originality, and assessing “out of the box” thinking.

And while not causation, there was a correlation between highest incidence of mind-wandering – something that’s often seen as a negative trait – and creativity scores. As such, the researchers suggest that ADHD coaching or therapy programs designed to channel mind-wandering into creative outputs could help neurodivergent people feel more empowered and benefit from their natural behaviors.

“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,” Fang said. “This is the first time this link has been investigated, so we need to see more studies which confirm the findings.

“Mind wandering is one of the critical resources on which the remarkable creativity of high-functioning ADHD individuals is based,” he added. “This makes them such an incredibly valuable asset for our society and the future of our planet.”

The research was presented at the ECNP annual congress this month, with the full study yet to be published.

Source: Radboud University Medical Centre via EurekAlert!