低潜在抑制症 (Low Latent Inhibition)

低潜在抑制症（Low Latent Inhibition，LLI 或 Decreased Latent Inhibition，DLI），是2003年由多伦多大学和哈佛大学的心理学研究专家共同发现的，论文发表于该年九月份Journal of Personality and Social Psychology （性格和社会心理学杂志）。

解释：人的大脑每时每刻都接受很多很多的信息，可是并不是每一样信息都能被接受，在潜意识中大脑会把一切与现在工作无关的信息过滤掉，这样的机制就是潜在抑制(latent inhibition)。而低潜在抑制症患者不断全盘接收这些信息，而且还不断进行联想、扩展。普通的低潜在抑制症患者承受不了如此多的信息，便会引发精神病(mental illness)；而高智商的患者则能把这些信息进行有效地利用和组织，成为极具创造力的天才(creative genius)。Low Latent Inhibition，简单地理解就是人类大脑latent inhibition机制的减弱，是低水平的latent inhibition。

"Biological basis for creativity linked to mental illness" October 1, 2003 – Creative people more open to stimuli from environment
Psychologists from U of T and Harvard University have identified one of the biological bases of creativity 

遗传基因上可能对它有一定隐发要素，结合成长环境影响造就了这种罕见的几率！

往往他会给患者带来很多诱发病症，最常见的就是自闭症、复杂性思考疾病、多重人格等等，看患者本身成长和环境因素等等而定。

在幼儿时期不善与人交流，往往人们眼中的老实巴交，沉迷于自己的世界。积木、绘画等创造性的游戏是他们最爱的，往往有点天赋。对于幼儿时期来说，他们不喜欢与同龄人一起玩耍，更多愿意的是花上一天的时间摆弄几块简单的积木！认为只有自己是真实存在的，其它一切都是虚假的画面，包括亲人、动物、事物、一切的一切都是围绕真实自己虚拟存在的（培养了以后的内心自我封闭，不让任何人或事物轻易进入）

儿童时期，表现上和大众无出入，但是自我内心封闭非常严重！内心开始矛盾，一些变化让他们不断思考却找不到答案。这种情况会让他们感觉相当愤怒，完全自我贬低存在价值。自我错误意识到自己变的非常愚笨（矛盾心理的培养，不断心理自我谴责贬低，思想上有了严重负担）

步入青年时期，出现明显差别，眼中的一切事物都和常人不同，物体的外貌形象不是他们眼中真正看到的，不喜欢表现真实的自我，多面化。在别人眼中的自己，对自己的认识等等，都是他们想表达给别人的，创造出来的虚假，多个假面中的一个（开始轻微精神分裂，多重人格）

青年时期，完全以自我为中心，分析能力较强，所以会常常觉得别人幼稚！但不喜欢表达，只关心自己关心的事物，沉迷自己的思考，一个图钉或一条蚯蚓会给他们带来成千上万的问题！但是自我意识、思维创造能力、空间组合能力极度膨胀，在生理和精神上又带来了巨大负担！唯一的好处就是不容易受外界影响，轻易改变自己，常人说的不易学坏（发展了一种错误的意识路线，思维上彻底和正常人分裂出来）

成年时期，典型的大男人主义，思想传统，内心充满矛盾，多面化，极度以自我为中心，已经有轻微精神分裂征兆。自己的内心的一切都是不为人知的，父母都可能不知道他们的真正内心世界，别人是完全没有办法知道他们脑袋中的东西。

眼中的不同表现为：比如平常人观察一只蚂蚁会看见什么颜色，几只脚，在爬动等一系列外貌形象。他们眼中看到的是，蚂蚁的内部构造，肌肉群，神经模网等等。还会通过空间想象，思维组合，脑信息筛选，看见它可能吃的东西，吃的动作，食物怎么样从口中运动到内部等等。这个蚂蚁被怎么样卵化，构成由蛋白质、水等等。其实不是真的眼睛突然看到了，只是在他们眼睛在传达给大脑的形象的同时，大脑会出现资料整理，在已有的资料认识基础上进行分析，如果没有已知的资料，会立刻出现多种空间思维运作，在无数的自我认知中找出其认为正确的形象进行填充。所以往往他们会去思考一些简单的真理，为什么是正确的！为什么“我”不叫“你；为什么1+2就必须等于3；为什么外星生物的组成必须和地球生物的构成元素一样；为什么人的基因只比香蕉多一组，香蕉为什么不是人，人不是香蕉（导致诱发病症，复杂性思考疾病）

对于一个普通人来说，这种突如其来的庞大问题结构，随时随地的自我意识出现的细致思考和观察，这种全方位的开放式信息处理是完全没有办法接受和理解的，一个人不管接触到什么东西都会牵连无数，思考无数，这是件多么可怕痛苦的事情！

所以有很多Low Latent Inhibition患者心理、生理根本无法负担这种承重，严重的超常规负荷直接导致患者精神分裂，完全崩溃的不在少数，大多最后成为精神病患者。

这种病症不是完全不能康复的，必须经过药物和心理治疗，使其达到一种内心的自我开放和接受，让他们真正解脱出来，完全治好的几率不大高，大部分治疗还是靠病者自己。

一些较为坚韧的患者（高智商，意志坚定者）他们大多在计算、创造、逻辑思维能力上比常人强悍很多，但是他们会失去一些正常思考、正常生活的平衡性。（通常在某一方面的创造成就者都是低水平潜意识压抑者，常人的潜意识压抑能力是他们的七倍）这样就会直接导致他失去生活乐趣！应该害怕和惊奇的时候，完全没有这方面的流露；看一些悬疑电影，刚开头就知道了结尾；从一个人的外貌、语言和动作就能彻底分析到对方的精确性格、生活、习性等等；（这些信息分析的处理是他们潜在形成的，也就是说完全自动化，正常人则完全没有“自动化”这种负担）……其观察分析能力是常人无法想象，据说爱因斯坦、牛顿、达芬奇等等就是这种病症的患者！当然也有希特勒这种等等

共性：他们并不是常人理解的那样怪异，他们表现的自己和常人无异，但是内心是极度脆弱的。很多人认为他们，包括患者本身都以为不需要感情这个东西，然而他们的感情却是相当细腻，能感受到别人不能感受到的东西。他们的一切内心表达都是自己的一个反面，他们不会像常人那样去正常流露，也许是自我意识的保护使其不能接受太多感情的东西，但是他们自己却明确知道这种表达是错误的，又体现了患者的矛盾思想。

就像一直在生活中和人群中演戏，成功演出自己认为最强大的一面，直到自己完全崩溃为止！
他们就像一根随时可能断掉的线，只是患者自身情况不同，粗细韧性不同。

病症：

1. 无数的幼稚问题，小事物的接触让你失眠
2. 经常恍惚状态，吃药时候都是看见一系列化学方程式，或是无数物质细小颗粒粉末的构成
3. 完全没有人彻底了解你，从来表现给别人的都是自我营造的其他角色（自闭和多重人格）
4. 经常感觉脑袋快要爆炸了，思维相当混乱，无数图象，数字等等搀杂其中
5. 常常会把很多责任往自己身上拉，想改变世界上的一切不公平和丑恶
6. 现在打字的时候看见的是键盘下面的连接线，线外面的绝缘材料，一块块的塑料的模件…
   看见自己打字的手指，出现上面的细胞、毛孔，下面是肌肉、血管和神经线还在慢慢蠕动，骨头…
7. 从来没有一个异性进入过自己的心，就算别人主动喜欢自己，都会有一种排斥情绪
8. 接触的人、事物让自己第一感觉就是相当幼稚，然后又发现自己的幼稚

如果你满足了上面6条说明你有可能得了Low Latent Inhibition，当你看完了这篇文字还认为得Low Latent Inhibition是件很酷的事情吗？

正面职业：艺术家，工程师，科学家
负面职业：杀人狂，骗术师，职业经神病

以下是 Prison Break Season1 EP09 中的台词：

   …well,Michael suffered from a couple of things.one was a condition called low-latent inhibition(低潜在抑制症).well,people who suffer from low-latent inhibitionnn see everyday things just l-i-k-e you or I do.Like this lamp,for instance.But where we just process the image of a lamp(但是我们眼中只能看到灯的形象),they process everything(他们能看到一切).The stem(支架),the bulb(灯泡),the bolts(螺钉),even the washers(垫圈) inside.their brains are more open to incoming stimuli in the surrounding  environment(他们的脑子对周围事物的信息更开放).Other people’s brans–yours and mine –shut out the same information.We have to do it in order to keep our sanity(健全的).If somebody with a low iq has low-latant inhibition,it almost always results in mental illness(精神病).But if someone has a high iq,it lamost always results in creative genius(具有创造性的天才).

   …no sense of self-worth(没有自信心)…but with the low-later inhibition,something interesting happened to michael.He became very attuned to all the suffering around him(他变得对周围的苦难有强烈的共鸣).He couldn’t shut it out(他不能坐视不管).He became a rescuer(他变成了一个帮助者),one of those people who are more concerned(关心,关怀) with other people’s welfare than their own.

以下摘自维基百科中对Low Latent Inhibition条目的解释：

Most people are able to shut out the constant stream of incoming stimuli, but those with low latent inhibition cannot. It is hypothesized that a low level of latent inhibition, or LLI, can cause either psychosis or a high level of creativity,[1] which is usually dependent on the subject’s intelligence.[2][3] Those of above average intelligence are thought to be capable of processing this stream effectively, an ability that greatly aids their creativity and ability to learn and which categorizes them as almost creative geniuses. Those with less than average intelligence, on the other hand, are less able to cope, and so as a result are more likely to suffer from mental illness.[4]

High levels of the neurotransmitter (神经递质) dopamine (多巴胺) (or its agonists) in the brain are thought to lower latent inhibition.[5] Certain dysfunctions of the neurotransmitter glutamate have also been implicated [1], and the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia is increasingly being seen as an alternative to the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_inhibition

Low Latent Inhibition Plus High Intelligence Leads To High Creativity?

Jordan Peterson of the University of Toronto and colleages at Harvard University have found that decreased latent inhibition of environmental stimuli appears to correlate with greater creativity among people with high IQ.

The study in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment. Other people’s brains might shut out this same information through a process called “latent inhibition” – defined as an animal’s unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs. Through psychological testing, the researchers showed that creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition.

“This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the extra information constantly streaming in from the environment,” says co-author and U of T psychology professor Jordan Peterson. “The normal person classifies an object, and then forgets about it, even though that object is much more complex and interesting than he or she thinks. The creative person, by contrast, is always open to new possibilities.”

Previously, scientists have associated failure to screen out stimuli with psychosis. However, Peterson and his co-researchers – lead author and psychology lecturer Shelley Carson of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard PhD candidate Daniel Higgins – hypothesized that it might also contribute to original thinking, especially when combined with high IQ. They administered tests of latent inhibition to Harvard undergraduates. Those classified as eminent creative achievers – participants under age 21 who reported unusually high scores in a single area of creative achievement – were seven times more likely to have low latent inhibition scores.

The authors hypothesize that latent inhibition may be positive when combined with high intelligence and good working memory – the capacity to think about many things at once – but negative otherwise. Peterson states: “If you are open to new information, new ideas, you better be able to intelligently and carefully edit and choose. If you have 50 ideas, only two or three are likely to be good. You have to be able to discriminate or you’ll get swamped.”

“Scientists have wondered for a long time why madness and creativity seem linked,” says Carson. “It appears likely that low levels of latent inhibition and exceptional flexibility in thought might predispose to mental illness under some conditions and to creative accomplishment under others.”

A less able mind has a greater need to be able to filter out and ignore stimuli. A less intelligent person with a low level of latent inhibition for filtering out familiar stimuli may well sink into mental illness as a result. But a smarter mind can handle the effects of taking note of a larger number of stimuli and even find interesting and useful patterns by continually processing a larger quantity of familiar information.

The central idea underlying our research program is therefore that individuals characterized by increased plasticity (extraversion and openness)retain higher post-exposure access to the range of complex possibilities laying dormant in so-called ??familiar ??environments.This heightened access is the subjective concomitant of decreased latent inhibition,which allows the plastic person increased incentive-reward-tagged appreciation for hidden or latent information (Peterson,1999). Such decreases in LI may have pathological consequences,as in the case of schizophrenia or its associated conditions (perhaps in individuals whose higher-order cognitive processes are also impaired,and who thus become involuntarily ???ooded ??by an excess of e?ectively tagged information),or may constitute a precondition for creative thinking (in individuals who have the cognitive resources to ??edit ??or otherwise constrain (Stokes,2001)their broader range of meaningful experience)

Note from the text of the full paper that stress causes the release of the hormone corticosterone which lowers latent inhibition. In a nutshell, when an organism runs into problems that cause stress the resulting release of stress hormones causes the mind to shift into a state where it will examine factors in the environment that it normally ignores. This allows the organism to look for solutions to the stress-causing problem that would be ignored in normal and less stressed circumstances.

So perhaps we could hypothesize something like this: under stressful conditions, or in personality con?gurations characterized by increased novelty-sensitivity, approach behavior, and DA activity, decreased LI is associated with increased permeability and ?exibility of functional cognitive and perceptual category [see Barsalou (1983)for a discussion of such categories ]. Imagine a situation where current plans are not producing desired outcomes ?a situation where current categories of perception and cognition are in error, from the pragmatic perspective. Something anomalous or novel emerges as a consequence (Peterson,1999), and drives exploratory behavior. Stress or trait-dependent decreased LI, under such circumstances, could produce increased signal (as well as noise), with regards to the erroneous pattern of behavior and the anomaly that it produced. This might o?er the organism, currently enmeshed in the consequences of mistaken presuppositions, the possibility of gathering new information, where nothing but categorical certainty once existed. Decreased LI might therefore be regarded as advantageous, in that it allows for the perception of more unlikely, radical and numerous options for reconsideration, but disadvantageous in that the stressed or approach-oriented person risks ??drowning in possibility,?? to use Kierkegaard ?s phrase.

One can easily see how this response could have been selected for evolutionarily. At the same time, one can also see how chronic stress could lead a person to fall into a state of confusion as a sustained large flood of stimuli could overwhelm the brain by giving it too much to think about and make a person unable to clearly see solutions that will relieve the feeling of stress.