Editorial: Creativity's Links to Time and Temperament

If the goal of the task is itself assumed to be rewarding to the participant, reward activation during this period of boredom or frustrative nonreward may imply that the goal is more effectively maintained in the minds of those who are more persevering.

Individual differences within each of the seven dimensions of personality correlate with different patterns of regional brain activity (J. Neurosci. 2005;25:6460-6), providing some biological validity to these personality constructs. Personality influences our societal role choices that in turn influence the realm in which our creative efforts are most likely to be expressed. Among medical students, for example, students who pursue a career in surgery tend to have lower harm avoidance and reward dependency scores than do those who pursue a career in primary care (Teach. Learn. Med. 2004;16:150-6).

Personality and temperament are qualities of the individual creator, and they influence how the individual creator behaves and interacts with others. How society in turn reacts to the creator and the creative product ultimately defines creative success.

This column, "Evoked Potentials," regularly appears in Clinical Neurology News, an Elsevier publication. Dr. Caselli is medical editor of Clinical Neurology News and is a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Ariz.