Creativity represents one of the most important and partially heritable human characteristics, yet little is known about its genetic basis. Epidemiological studies reveal associations between creativity and psychiatric disorders as well as multiple personality and behavioral traits. To test whether creativity and these disorders or traits share genetic basis, we performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) followed by polygenic risk score (PRS) analyses. Two cohorts of Han Chinese subjects (4,834 individuals in total) aged 18–45 were recruited for creativity measurement using typical performance test. After exclusion of the outliers with significantly deviated creativity scores and low-quality genotyping results, 4,664 participants were proceeded for GWAS. We conducted PRS analyses using both the classical pruning and thresholding (P+T) method and the LDpred method. The extent of polygenic risk was estimated through linear regression adjusting for the top 3 genotyping principal components. R² was used as a measurement of the explained variance. PRS analyses demonstrated significantly positive genetic overlap, respectively, between creativity with schizophrenia ((P+T) method: R²_(max) ~ .196%, P = .00245; LDpred method: R²_(max) ~ .226%, P = .00114), depression ((P+T) method: R²_(max) ~ .178%, P = .00389; LDpred method: R²_(max) ~ .093%, P = .03675), general risk tolerance ((P+T) method: R²_(max) ~ .177%, P = .00399; LDpred method: R²_(max) ~ .305%, P = .00016), and risky behaviors ((P+T) method: R²_(max) ~ .187%, P = .00307; LDpred method: R²_(max) ~ .155%, P = .00715). Our results suggest that human creativity is probably a polygenic trait affected by numerous variations with tiny effects. Genetic variations that predispose to psychiatric disorders and risky behaviors may underlie part of the genetic basis of creativity, confirming the epidemiological associations between creativity and these traits.

中文翻译：

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全基因组创造力的关联研究揭示了精神疾病，风险耐受性和风险行为的遗传重叠

创造力是人类最重要且部分可遗传的特征之一，但对其遗传基础知之甚少。流行病学研究揭示了创造力与精神疾病以及多种人格和行为特征之间的关联。为了测试创造力和这些疾病或特征是否共享遗传基础，我们进行了全基因组关联研究（GWAS），然后进行了多基因风险评分（PRS）分析。使用典型的性能测试，招募了两个队列的汉族受试者（总共4,834个人），年龄在18-45之间。在排除具有明显偏离的创造力评分和低质量基因分型结果的离群值之后，进行了4,664名参与者的GWAS研究。我们使用经典修剪和阈值（P + T）方法和LDpred方法进行了PRS分析。通过线性回归调整前3个基因分型的主要成分，估算了多基因风险的程度。R ²用作解释方差的度量。PRS分析显示，精神分裂症创造力之间的显着正遗传重叠（（P + T）方法：R ² _{（最大值）}〜.196 ％，P = .00245； LDpred方法：R ² _{（最大值）}〜.226％，P = .00114），抑郁症（（P + T）方法：R ² _（max）〜.178 ％，P = .00389; LDpred方法：R ² _（max）〜.093 ％，P = .03675），一般风险承受能力（（P + T）方法：R ² _（max）〜.177％，P= .00399; LDpred方法：R ² _（最大）〜.305％，P = .00016）和危险行为（（P + T）方法：R ² _（max）〜.187％，P = .00307; LDpred方法：R ² _（最大）〜.155％，P = .00715）。我们的结果表明，人类创造力可能是受多种变异影响且具有微小影响的多基因性状。易患精神病和危险行为的遗传变异可能是创造力遗传基础的一部分，这证实了创造力与这些特征之间的流行病学关联。