ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews how some neurological disorders might influence creativity. Studies of patients with strokes have taught us much about how different areas of the cerebral cortex mediate specific behaviors, and creativity is heavily dependent on a number of cognitive skills. Trimble suggested that the epilepsy was probably destructive to the creative writing process. Thus, although the observation that several creative writers had epilepsy might suggest that there is a relationship between epilepsy and creative writing, epilepsy is a common disorder and no one has formally attempted to learn if there is a significant relationship between this disorder and creativity. The normal person's cerebral cortex is highly connected, and it is the connectivity between these modules that might be important in creative innovation. Picasso also appears to have had a language learning disability. Both of these individuals' creativity, in part, depended on spatial skills.
