Researchers have discovered that ADHD is associated with increased creativity, largely due to a tendency for the mind to wander. Deliberate mind wandering, where people intentionally let their thoughts drift, appears to be especially important for creative thinking.
New research shows that ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is linked to higher creativity, and that this creative boost may be connected to how often the mind wanders. Presented at the ECNP congress in Amsterdam, this study is the first to clearly explain how ADHD and creativity are related.
Lead researcher Han Fang (from the Radboud University Medical Centre, the Netherlands) said:
“Previous research pointed to mind wandering as a possible factor linking ADHD and creativity, but until now no study has directly examined this connection. We conducted two studies, utilising 2 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 analysing results from 2 independent groups means that we can have greater confidence in the results.”
How ADHD Symptoms and Mind Wandering Are Connected
The researchers looked at how ADHD traits, creativity, and everyday functional difficulties are related, with special attention to mind wandering. Participants in both groups showed well known ADHD traits, including inattention, impulsivity, and a tendency for thoughts to drift away from the current task. Across both studies, people with more ADHD symptoms also reported more frequent mind wandering.
Mind wandering refers to moments when attention shifts away from what someone is doing and turns toward internally generated thoughts. While everyone experiences this from time to time, it happens more often in people with ADHD.
Two Different Types of Mind Wandering
Han Fang added:
“Previous researchers have been able to distinguish two different types of mind wandering. 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.”
Measuring Creativity and Its Link to Thought Patterns
Creativity was also measured in both groups (there are standards ways of measuring this, for example by asking people to find a creative use for an everyday object). The researchers then analyzed how creativity levels were related to the two types of mind wandering.
Dr. Han Fang said:
“We found that people with more ADHD traits such as lack of attention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity, score higher on creative achievements in both studies. This supports previous research. Additionally, we found that mind wandering, particularly deliberate mind wandering, where people allow their ‘thoughts to wander on purpose,’ was associated with greater creativity in people with ADHD. This suggests that mind wandering may be an underlying factor connecting ADHD and creativity.
“This may have practical implications, for both psychoeducation and treatment. For psychoeducation, specially designed programs or courses that teach individuals how to utilize their spontaneous ideas, for example turning them into creative outputs, could help individuals with ADHD traits harness the benefits of mind wandering. For treatment, 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. This is the first time this link has been investigated, so we need to see more studies which confirm the findings.”
Expert Perspective on ADHD and Creativity
Commenting, K.P. Lesch (Professor of Molecular Psychiatry, University of Würzburg, Germany) said:
“Mind wandering is one of the critical resources on which the remarkable creativity of high-functioning ADHD individuals is based. This makes them such an incredibly valuable asset for our society and the future of our planet.”
Meeting: 38th ECNP Congress
H.F. is supported by the China Scholarship Council (grant number 202208430007). C.G. is supported by an Aspasia grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, grant number 015.015.070). M.H. is supported by personal Veni and Vidi grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, grant numbers 91619115 & 09150172210069). M.H. has received a speaker fee from Medice. All other authors declare no other conflicting interests.
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