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A new study has revealed that Neurotic people who brood over negative thoughts are likely to be more creative. This is because, in neuroticism, a brain part responsible for self-generated thought is highly active, yielding traits of both positivity i.e. creativity and negativity.

People scoring high in personality tests on neuroticism tend to have negative thoughts an all types of feelings. They usually struggle to cope with dangerous jobs and have high chances of facing psychiatric disorders within their lifetime.

Isaac Newton a classic neurotic

Classic neurotic Isaac Newton was a worrier and brooder. According to researchers, he is always prone to dwelling on the scientific problems along with his childhood sins. However, Newton had creative breakthroughs. His thoughts on physics are so profound that they are still part of a standard science education.

Why people are neurotic?

British psychologist Jeffrey Gray has proposed in 1970s that neurotic people have a heightened sensitivity to threat. A casual explanation for neuroticism is that individual differences in the activity of brain circuits governing the self-generated thought.

Dean Mobbs of the Columbia University’s Fear, Anxiety and Biosocial Lab, had earlier shown that as a threat stimulus moves closer, a switch from forebrain activity related to anxiety to midbrain activity related to panic. It was also shown by Mobbs that the circuits in the switch from basolateral nuclei of the amygdale controls anxiety to panic. The amygdale is the brain’s emotional centre.

A personality researcher at King’s College London, lead author Adam Perkins, said, “If you have a tendency to switch to panic sooner than average people, due to possessing especially high reactivity in the basolateral nuclei of the amygdale, then that means you can experience intense negative emotions, even when there’s no threat present.”

“This could mean that for specific neural reasons, high scorers on neuroticism have a highly active imagination, which acts as a built-in threat generator,” Perkins said.

The study was published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences Opinion.

-Sumana