title: Association of verbal and figural creative achievement with polymorphism in the human serotonin transporter gene.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the potential association between the S (short) and L (long) alleles of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene and verbal and figural creative ability. Sixty-two unrelated Caucasian university students (29 men and 33 women) participated in the experiment. The results showed a significant association between verbal and figural creativity scores and the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism. The subjects with S/S and L/S genotypes demonstrated higher verbal creativity scores in comparison with the L/L genotype carriers. The carriers of S/S genotype demonstrated also higher figural creativity scores in comparison with the carries of L/S and L/L genotypes. Thus, it is the first report on a significant association between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and creative achievements. As the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism is associated with genetically defined alteration in the brain serotonergic neurotransmission our result provides an evidence of the involvement of the central serotonin system in creativity regulation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physiology of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia.
authors.forename: Nina V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Volf
authors.forename: Alexander V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Kulikov
authors.forename: Cyril U
authors.initials: CU
authors.lastname: Bortsov
authors.forename: Nina K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Popova
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins