Mesearch

Her Findings: Hypergraphia is a form of hypercreativity: The brain generates, and the hand records, thousands of thoughts. Flaherty reviewed the relevant literature and published a model for the idea generation that upended the conventional wisdom about the right "creative" brain and the left "practical" brain.

Previous studies hinted that the hemispheric explanation of creativity was too simple. Flaherty went one step further, arguing that the connections between the frontal lobes and temporal lobes are more important, and that the limbic system also plays a critical role. Hypergraphia was known to be a trait of temporal lobe epileptics, so Flaherty suspected changes in that area could increase creative drive and facilitate idea generation. Patients with temporal lobe alterations could be prolific, although the quality of their output was typically low. "Most of what I wrote was garbage," Flaherty confesses. She also noted that frontal lobe deficits tend to squash creative output. They have been linked to depression and anxiety. Since the frontal lobe generates ideas, such dysfunction could mean fewer of them, as well as harsh judgments about each idea's worth. Lastly, she explored the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which decreases inhibition and can trigger the drive to communicate. Her conclusion: Frontotemporal interactions, with input from dopamine systems, control creative drive.

Flaherty says right-left hemisphere interactions seem to influence your chosen medium. They decide whether you become a writer or a sculptor, for example. But the drive to create is even more important than innate talent.

Her popular book about her experience, The Midnight Disease, brought scores of other hypergraphics to her office door. She learned, she says, that "people with mood liability get it especially in times of stress or excitement." For many, including Flaherty, who also suffers from bipolar disorder, it is connected to the clinical state of mania.

Her Insight: With the help of her own doctors, Flaherty utilizes her dopamine findings to control recurring bouts of hypergraphia; she had another dramatic onslaught after the birth of her second set of twins, who are now 9 years old. She attributes her postpartum experiences to surges in estrogen and cortisol, which bind strongly in the temporal lobe. (Grief also floods the brain with cortisol.) "It's lovely to be able to write so much, but it's not a stable state for me," she explains. "It makes me jittery and agitated." She uses distractions, like washing dishes, to keep her hands busy, and also takes mood-stabilizers.

Now her mood swings are more like energy swings. "In late summer, I'm very zippy, then November comes and I slow down," she says. She keeps the muse in check so she can produce higher-quality writing, which has included 11 reviews and editorials, contributions to nine scientific articles, lyrics to a contemporary organ work, and three books.

Discovering "Naturals": Ognjen Amidzic

His Story: Ognjen Amidzic was born in Sarajevo, where chess is a national pastime. He became obsessed early on. "My mother wanted me to play piano, but chess interested me much more," he says. With the full support of his family and enormous personal motivation—he'd stay up entire nights analyzing chess positions—success came quickly. In his first local tournament, he finished in the top three in his age group. His long-term goal: to become a grandmaster. At age 19, he moved to Russia to attend university and train with the best players in the world.

There, he hit a wall. "I had huge problems playing those guys," he says. "I'd lose a lot of games and end up looking for a draw just to save myself." He sought out better coaches, but soon realized that while he could increase his knowledge, he'd reached the limit of his understanding. The losses piled up, with the final straw occurring during a tournament in Switzerland in 1993. Amidzic was in a strong position against his opponent, "Mr. Nobody, an amateur who liked to play chess," he says. "I thought, If I'm not able to do this now, this is the end." He lost the game and the tournament, and gave up competitive chess forever. What followed was a difficult period as Amidzic tried to figure out what had gone so wrong.