I’ve just watched episode 9 of the new tv series called ‘Prison Break’. Near the end of this episode we find out that the main character suffers from a condition known as ‘Low latent Inhibition’. I wanted to see if such an interesting condition actually existed so I googled it and here is what I found:
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 ‘flooded ’’by an excess of effectively 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 configurations characterized by increased novelty-sensitivity, approach behavior, and DA activity, decreased LI is associated with increased permeability and flexibility 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.
This is so mind boggling.. i certainly have symptoms of LLI its just so amazing that ive never been able to explain what ive been feeling to ppl cause they just think im crazy or they just dont get me, finally i have an explenation, but i also feel i am suffering from the negative side of LLI my brain processes too much and its hard for me to see the simple side of things its always asking Why Why Why i feel so helpless in this world sometimes.
Hey everyone,
I arrived here same as all of you, heard it on PB, googled it :D. I'm turning 18 this yr, i'm at first year uni studying Engineering, residing in Australia.
I believe I have some sort of LLI also. Throughout my growing up my mum and family always said i had such an "inquisitive" mind. I always wanted to know more about anything new. Even things that I observed or found intersting others would just go "So what?" I drove many ppl mad with all my questions, frustrated that they didn't know themselves and coulnd't answer properly and if I wasn't satisfied with what I knew I woudl continue asking questions until all the pieces fit in my head. Also got myself into trouble by teachers at school fairly frequently because of the same reason lol.
I think that my strain of LLI has led me to Engineering, as probably most others. We probably all share the same want "to know more", and can comprehensively absorb theory and effectively apply it to situations, and come up with new ideas.
But yeh, just thought i'd contribute something coz it such an intersting topic, and it answers a lot of questions i've previously had. I can sort of understand how ppl think a bit better now.
Regards, Brendan
Hi there genii….
I came to this site much the same as most of you, though here in South Africa we still have not seen PB on TV, so I read about it (the series) on the net and they mentioned this little thing the main character Michael has that you all dubbed LLI for short…
I live in Cape Town because it stimulates me creatively, and it relaxes me and curb's my bouts of depression, mostly caused by loneliness because no-one seems to understand me or stimulate me intellectually. According to MENSA (lol) only one in over 100K people will be my intellectual equal (though I believe some of the contributors to this blog might qualify)… so I want to know, do any of you other LLI babies find it hard to get A DATE? Or is it just me?
I studied marketing management, civil engineering and industrial design, currently working as a comic book artist and writing freelance for GQ Cars Magazine as well as over 3 years part time at the local gym and still I get bored with everything too quickly. I also started designing and inventing from a very early age 9like some of you) and still seek solutions for basic problems the world and my kitchen suffers from. I designed my first car and plane at age 3, currently working on an idea for an electromagnetically propelled city vehicle.
I bet most of you guys regard yourselves as perfectionists, conspiracy theorists, philosophers and you REALLY LOVE YOUR MUSIC…one of the few things that can keep your attention focused… I have a theory that this is a condition we will hear a lot more of in fact, it might be the next step in our evolution and we should embrace it and explore its potential. I would like to know if there are chatrooms where LLI's can discuss their ideas on this and related subjects. Please let me know…
By the way, I believe I am more positive and stable having this condition because I have an identical twin with exactly the same symptoms…and we understand each other perfectly…we just scare everyone else…
Darn this stuff is interesting! Oh yeh, I also get the insomnia thing, my mind just can't seem to shut down…I find earplugs help a lot though (for dogin20).
hi i'm from the philippines and they just recently aired prison break here. thanks to cable tv, i can watch it. i've finally seen the whole first season, thanks to efficient sources. at first i never liked it because i did not know it's story but when i got to sit down and watch a full episode i instanty got hooked! it's amazing. i googled low latent inhibition and your page came out first! Prison break is one of the best tv show i have ever watched! i can watch reruns the whole day.. haha.. 😀
from the phil too…i was fascinated about LLI! just most of us here who posted, i googled it right away after watching the episode of PB ;D im a psych grad and it was the first time i heard about it…anywayz, got hooked too with PB, downloaded the whole season =D
i would like to be a forensic archeologist or in that similar field (i noticed that engineering and what i want to do is are very similar (construction and thinking outside the box)), i am taking a gcse in art and am facinated with the construction of bones and other things. i can notice every detail weather there is a weird smell or something else that no-one else can see and then minutes later they will say oh yeh i can see it.
i posted earlier incase no-one new
Drgns77 yes but no.
NO being no #1 can know any thing. Or every thing.
Y because knowledge. This being knowledge is something passed down from any and all sources. There to say its interlocked with what ever ppl that came before us Know or at least thought they had correct. So I thought about the game ware some one says something and tells you to pass it along until it comes back to the 1st person and they see what the said TURNED in TO.
NOW I say true knowledge can come from some one that knows it to be false but holds it to be TRUE as every one else after him holds it to bet TRUE ? no actually its still false?. There for all knowledge is un trustworthy
Not to say we don?t neglect common knowledge for the fact that O every one knows that dumb ass. Lol
Ying and Yang are all encompassing of one another no one side more right or wrong than the other
So existing in the 1st place Would be an indicator that everything is right Even the most contradictory of things.
We are the ones that say we know enough but only know a portion, meanwhile go to war defending our na?ve portion of the big picture. good and evil are basic and come from our basic instinct that is a cochins. But get more advanced as we try to put them into words. But a word is a box and a box can only hold so much.
Thoughts have the same innate quality as language has they can get lost in translation ?as can knowledge or societies.
?society A says there right but society B says no we are right by what measure are they comparing one another? May there be one with the perfect rule of measure?? the one with the perfect rule of measure is all of them A B C D?..X Z
ENOUGH background information is never ENOUGH
apparently you all have LLI, fakes.
I kind of find it hard to find dates as well. I find most other chicks my age (17) to be kind of well…retarded. Theyre all only out for fun and don't care about a proper relationship, but that's probably just a teen/maturity thing.
I watched prison break too. And I did google for 'Low Latent Inhibition' after Ep. 9.
Found this blog, nice talk and more information then I expected.
Keep up the information gathering 🙂 I see things diffrent too, and I want to know if there is a LLI test, no matter if it's negative of positive.
Thanks.
Zwolle, Netherlands
i have always wondered if why i was different that other people in my perspective towards little detail and how it just sits there in my mind even though i didnt try 2 retain it,my mind is always wondering away giving me too much information on something of very less inportance.
The people who say they have LLI, how do you know? Did they do a test or went to a dr. ? I asume you can't prognose it by yourself.
Gr. Dutchie
I also first stumbled across the idea of LLI through prison break, although my understanding of it stemmed much earlier, due to personal experiences. In the last few years, I have come to known a schizophrenic. This presented me with the negative effects of LLI. At the same time, however, I started noticing that my mind would document the most random things. Of course, I didn't understand why my mind had made note of such random details, but it did. It was only after certain events that I would see the significance in the miniscule details I documented, since the documentation of these details worked in my favor. I came to a conclusion that I had LLI (without knowing what it was called at the time). I have not gone through any testing, however, so I cannot say to what degree I have LLI. Unfortunately, this made me doubt my own sanity, and still does to this day…since the schizophrenic I have come to know runs in the family line…….
As time passed, I gradually realized my mind was analyzing details I consciously wasn't aware I was analyzing. These subconscious analyses would surface when the need arose, saving me time by avoiding mistakes, preparing me for inevitable mishaps, etc.
I have come to attribute these seemingly intuitive occurrences to LLI. Whether or not LLI is the cause…I'll leave that to the researchers.
It was only after watching that episode in prison break, however, that I discovered what the scientific community had termed this condition. I thank prison break for that as I now know where to begin my search for a better understanding of this complex process.
Perhaps I'm crazy. Perhaps I'm not. According to these reports, there's a thin line separating the two…where intelligence makes all the difference. So I guess to avoid being crazy, I would need to keep learning, haha.
Right now, my interests span in nearly every field. I've come to love web and graphic design, my form of art appreciation. I currently write whenever I have time, uploading my work online for others to read. I've grown up aiming to some day be a scientist (genetics interested me for a while). Now I've decided to dab a little bit more in everything else by studying international relations. It's still unclear to me what I would like to do the most, so I can only hope I'll find something that will work for me.
For background, since many seem to have provided it, I'm a high school senior graduating this May. I have enough college credits, however, to place me in junior standing once I begin college formally in the fall of 2006.
I came across your site while researching and just thought I'd add my 2 cents. 🙂 I've just always wanted to discuss this topic with others who are interested in it, so I'm glad to see that your blog has managed to create that community. Great job!
Prison Break is one of the greatest shows out there!
I think I've rambled enough…
For one to seek attention and assume LLI can only occur with extremely excessive IQ's are wrong. Prison Break is a Television show, although what is viewed on TV can be compared to real life conditions, you can't watch it and self diagnose a condition because you start to realize that you are more susceptible to absorb and process all experienced stimuli. It can be normal if not diagnosed with LLI to have overactive minds. A number of researchers have noted a correlation between creative ability and IQ levels below 120, whereas correlations between creativity and IQ?s above 120 are generally less significant. This threshold theory suggests that an IQ of 120 may be necessary but not sufficient for creative achievement.
LLI can do great things most of the time — considering you can handle it. I got a 158 IQ (16 sd) and a LLI condition that required treatment some time ago (good psychiatrists can slow it down, specially when you are going through a lot of stress). People say you can: "think outside the box", "go a step further", "relate things that do not seem so similar" — that ideia that you play chess while others are playing checkers (if I may quote that Cry Wolf movie). It does not takes the focus away from creative thoughts, it enhances it simply by correlating two ideas that you might miss if you are too focused. Being focused is about concentrating for long periods of time and producing with the information your gathered. If you can gather more information and you are smart enough to stick with the ones that really matter, then you are going to be creative more often. Sometimes you gather too much information and you just can not seem to turn it off — that is time to slow it down, even if you are 180 IQ guy. We all got a limit. Sorry for my poor English, but I did not had the opportunity to study it for a long time. Thank you for all the information you provided.
i also watched that episode from prison break. it just got in the philippines a few months ago.i really think its cool! i wish i had that talent… keep watching prison break! wentworth miller is hot!!!
I'm glad I found this website and I've enjoyed reading the comments by most of the people on here. Makes me feel just a little less odd. Besides having a heightened awareness of things I have OCD and it can be overwhelming at times. I write to get it all out of me and listen to ALOT of music to concentrate and block out the world. But I'm happy being a bit tweaked, makes me unique:).
Marrick Jan 4th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
yeah, u guys think that it?d be cool to have this, but what if u combined it
with a moderate level obsesive-compulsive disorder where u can see everything in something, but find something wrong with it instead of creative opportunities. Ronald?s the only one with a freakin? clue.
Marrick you have ADD more than anything else, stop your It's-so-tragic-you-all-have-no-idea act. If you are claiming to have LLI you'd have noticed the poster's name was Roland not Ronald.
I have LLI. I have had it all my life. I am also very intelligent. The upside, is that I have excelled and been promoted throughout my adult career. (I am currently an administrator for a school district). There are some major downsides. I find it very hard to “turn it off”. I have trouble sleeping. I suffer from Dysgraphia, (I have a theory that the two are related, and that’s why my spelling sucks).
Hi everyone,
It’s really interesting to see how you all think so differently but though the same. Shakespeare once said: “Nothing is so common as the wish to be remerkable”
I really think he is right, I even caught myself with trying to be remarkable. Everyone is different in its own way whether it is via high intellegence or brilliant sportachievements. Your special abbilities either can contribute to madness or to brillinace (these two are so closely related they almost can’t be seperated), wich one it eventually will be you’ll make up your own in your head.
I agree with you all that percieving a thousand times more imputs than other human beings is really a burden. That is exactly what keeps me awake at night, that is what keeps me from concentrating at the lectures at university, that is what keeps me distracted when having a conversation. It is very difficult to not be able to concentrate at one thing at a time.
Is there a solution to this problem? I don’t think there is anything you can do about LLI except for drugging yourself untill you are not capable of seeing straight anymore. Maybe you can’t even live without LLI because it will make you feel ordinary and let you think you have nothing to add to society because of the lack of pure creative brilliance. So please everyone wo encouters these problems just try to master your own mind and bring it in harmony. I know this is practically impossible but it’s worth a try and it may even provide you with a different glance of life.
Kind regards,
JC (from the Netherlands)
WELL WELL WELL !!!!!!!!!!!!
It's good to see I am not alone.(I hope)
After a few years of looking into my mind and searching.
I got it!!!!
It took me a long time but now I am almost sure, "Low Latent Inhibition" is my problem (or like my friends say "my gift" , but they don't really understand what I feel or think)
I saw it on TV, I wrote the name down and checked it out
And found out that what I have been feeling and thinking all this time, is a defined problem, and I am not alone
(and I was sure I was just going crazy)
PLEASE!!!!!!!!
If you know more about this problem("gift") please tell me about it ,I need help. I feel I'm going crazy, But no one understands me. I'm starting to think maybe I don't understand my self.
What can help me calm down my mind!!!???
Some times I just wish I could stop thinking!!!!!
My brain works on 200 km/h also when I'm sleeping!
Is that normal. Or I am going crazy?
Ilan
Apparent it may seem Prison Break; the most intense series by fox sinse 24 has inspired a flurry of people both interested in and beleieve to sufferer/benefit from LLI.
Like most i wasnt aware of LLI until prison break, and after that point i scanned the web to collaborate what information i could find and it seems like i share the same traits as those that other people have.
To be honest my brain started racing as soon as i heard the Psychiatrists analgy of Micheals condition in prison break, thats how i think, i thought, "is this condition fiction?"
The fine line between Creative genius and Phsycotic behavior, van gogh was a talented man but he was crazy, my theory is that people who are eccentric are geniuses in respect to the stereotypical human .
"stereotypical human", i hear you say. Well i believe the sterotypical human will work day in day out at a job that includes repetition, go home and enjoy the same lifestyle, they love repetition they hate new things.
Whereas i see myself different, and i have no doubt im the only one, in terms of different i mean, i enjoy work, i enjoy learning, i enjoy making something perfect and then more perfect, enjoy the way i can understand any concept that i dare to indulge in.
I have not been tested for LLI, but for as long as I can remember, I've had very observing and acute senses (Despite the fact that I'm half deaf in one ear from stabbing the eardrum with a stick when I was six, I can still hear people down the block close their cardoors, and other futile things like that). Stressful situations really agitate my senses, and when I come across something I fear, everything blows up way out of proportion, and I have a breakdown that lasts until I fall asleep. For instance, I have a crippling fear of disembodied hairs. If one touches me, or if I see one on anyone or anything, it triggers my senses and puts everything into overload. I have problems on stage, too, when I play on piano concerts (I'm a music major). I have to become immersed in the piece immediately or I won't be able to play well, because I'll panic and hear everything in the audience…a scuffle of a foot, a whisper, the crinkling of a program. It doesn't help that I have Social Anxiety Disorder, either. =/
I have this to a large extent all it does is make me over analyse everything. what poeple say, where, the look they give and body language in general I play hundreds of situations over in my head. luckely i am smart enough to pick the right ones. i have a averegae to high IQ and handle it well. all you other people need to stop crying and start using your brains, not medication
Hmmm, if people have different levels of latent inhibition does that mean you can suffer HLI (High Latent Inhibition). I assume the symptoms would be the opposite of LLI – people would be ignorant to irrelevant information and such. If so, that sounds like me… I don’t seem to notice much around me!
Hmm, it seems funny that once this episode aired, all of a sudden anyone who watched it thinks they have LLI.
Why does everyone think they have this?
I too have LLI, is explains so much……ahahahaha..
Come on guys, honestly.
After reading this blog, and many others, with people claiming to have LLI, and to be geniuses. They also can't spell! Taught = thought, genious = genius, (and do you now think you have dysgraphia aswell?)
I think that what we have discovered here is not an amazing cluster of people with LLI, who are geniuses out to save the world, but a bunch of hypochondriacs!!
Hi am in Uganda east Africa just paused the dvd to google the subject in,what i have read compels me to contribute to this blog.Am thinking given that the occurrence of clinically mad people(schizophrenics) in the population is about 1:100 well down here atleast,it strikes me as odd that almost 1 in 2 people who wrote here claims to have LLI. Do u think u chose to find out more on the subject owing to LLI or old simple health care seeking behavior which in my opinion is the predisposition of any normal affluent person. U see its exciting to be classified as an otherwise left out monority (am in the third world trust me when i tell u that)it comes with self pity but not without its benefits;attention, justification for whatever fits the profile, identity/belonging and in this case a chance to pass one off as agenius. But again who knows i may be wrong i just might have LLI, else why am i trying to rationalise everything. But u know Jeff keep this up it makes for good mental stimulus.
hi mi names Ricardo, i would love to know how to maybe block out my thoughts of over-annilising annoying things in evryday life, i am 17 years old and could really do with the help, its starting to effect my relationships and family life. dgenerationxv1@hotmail.com for anyone who can help me!!!!!!! Thank you.
Less than 1% of those on this site claiming to have LLI actually do. The rest of you just want attention.
That is all.
Hi, my name is Angel. I have read all comments and can related to many of them. I have actually found someone else, Swedish Lady, that can sense others emotions as I can. You do not realize what that means to me to know that someone else has that ability. It will drive you nuts, though. It is as though you are that person. After being married to my husband for 10 yrs I finally told him about that ability. I think he thought I was crazy. I know he didn’t understand. How could he? I have also tried explaining to him how differently my mind works from everyone elses. I expressed that my mind is like a computer, it never stops processing information and that I can think of many different things and perform many different tasks at once. The really bad thing of it all is that the older I get, the more information I consume, the worst it gets. It is really beginning to get to me now. I’m not going crazy or anything like that, I am getting really bored and need to expand and do something more with my career. As I was recalling my younger years, I wasn’t anywhere close to where I am now and as I stated, the older I get, the worst it gets. If anyone has any suggestions, please help?
Hey, i was just wondering if there are any basics signs to check if you have LLI??? Is there anyway i can test myself to see if i have it. I think i might have it but i’m note sure if i have it or i just want it….So if there are any signs that help you get an idea of if you have it that would be great. Thanks…
Hi y’all! LLI is the next best thing, one of the best discoveries of the year, thanks to Prison Break, now everybody will aspire to be like Wentworth Miller and start staging elaborate ways to be in prison. honestly though, this is really interesting stuff. I’m a doctor but I actually learned about it through the hit series. We get the whole series in a dvd dude here in the PI(Philippine Islands)haha so I’m inviting y’all to come over and support piracy. Just kidding!
u dont need lli to be a genius…
LOL!! It’s funny to see how many of you think you’re having LLI. I came up with a conclusion of my own, hence I’d like to ask you a question. How many of you do drugs, psychoactives to be precise?
To be serious, I think these symptoms that most of the people are talking here are somehow related to the information flood in our society. You can’t really escape the excess visual or aureal data anywhere, and it comes on you with an unbelievable speed.
If I remember right, a guru type of a guy from India called Osho has once said something along these lines “how can you find inner peace when you get six times the information during a minute that you got 600 years ago during six hours”. 666 not being the point here(I know some of you’re gonna be picking it out)
Go google about “Indigo Children”
Hi
after watching episode 9 of prison break, nothing got my attention more then this work "Low Latent Inhibition"
so i googled and i found this lovely article.
Thanks very much for your post about the defination, i checked out with wikipedia and the defination there is exactly what the doctor told the girl in the Episode.
i am trying to find out a place where they can measure your "Latent Inhibition", to check out whether its low or normal.
Regards
intelligence isn't defined by concentration, intelligence is defined by a changing perspective, being able to perceive something in a different light
if you REALLY want to experience LLI drop acid or eat some mushrooms, then you'll see, not that i encourage drug use though
what if you suffer from LLI and anxiety.?with high panic levels, you would not be able to process those free unblocked information because a greater disorder blocks it..?
I don’t know if anyone still reads this as it seems it was posted some time ago. I’ve only recently actually gotten to see much of Prison Break. (I first saw it during the marrathon of the 1st season before the 2nd season came out, but I was working and didn’t get to see much, so now we’re renting it.)
ADD, dyslexia, and OCD run in my family (among other things), and it’s believed LLI too. Artistic and creative abilities seem to run in my family too, and we recently discovered we’re related to Edgar Allen Poe.
I’ve been doing research on this topic since I saw that episode. I couldn’t get LLI out of my head. I’ve found sites saying that ADD and OCD could be linked to LLI along with chronic unexplained headaches and extreme exhaustion (because it takes so much energy to keep sorting out thoughts on a daily basis). I’ve also read the the LLI can even be mistaken for ADD, (which reminds me of the ADD outbreak when everyone decided to medicate their children) and that it may be widley underdiagnosed.
Marrick,
My father is a psychiatrist, and they don’t get paid as much as you think. He tries his hardest to help people, but there’s a lot of paperwork involved. He only sleeps 3 hours a night, he does nothing but work, and when we calculated it out, I made more money than him working fast food part-time. He’s over retirement age, so he can’t find a new job, but he’s brilliant in his own ADD way. (And I’m not saying that out of love or anything, ‘cus I despised him until recently. He got a Masters degree with a 4.0 all the way through school.)
However, Marrick is right about one thing. LLI can seem really cool when you see what can be done with it like in Prison Break, but there is a downfall. When LLI is mixed with ADD and OCD, it can be overwhelming. The OCD makes you kind of a perfectionist, but the LLI forces you to notice every imperfection. (For example, before my daughter was born, I was drawing this picture in PS7: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/32240229/?qo=65&q=by:snoday&qh=sort:time -in:scraps But things kept bothering me, so it took me 9 months to finish this picture. I finally had it perfect, and once I had posted it, noone really took notice because they thought it was a photo, not a drawing, which of course, made me mad.)
The way I imagine it, there’s a river of thoughts flowing through the back of your mind. The thoughts come from your senses, obviously. You have to pick out the important thoughts and leave the other ones in the stream. If you pull out too many, you’re liable to forget the important ones because there are still so many coming in. When you’re in an argument, for example, there are so many things you want to say at once, so many thoughts pouring into your head that you can’t keep up the flitering as fast as you need to, and your head becomes flooded and you become so flustered you can’t even make an intelligible sentence. It can be frustrating.
I feel greatly inclined towards all kinds of arts, writing, even language itself. Some people think I’m “obsessed” with it. I’ve actually been so busy working on stuff before that I’ve forgotten to eat or sleep. Out of fear I force myself to avoid my one true desire, which is to work on my art, uninterrupted. I force myself to settle before the job is done so the OCD doesn’t take over. I’ve decided to go to school for something that’s safer, an easier job field to get into with better pay, for the sake of my daughter. I can see the possibilities, my potential but fear for my family hold me back. I think it’s horrible that we live in a world where people can afford to do what they’re really good at or even just what they really enjoy. I hope I can help my daughter fullfill her potential.
I only got into PB recently and as soon as I saw the episode about low latent inhibitions, I immediately googled it. I've always been an overly-sensitive person and no one has ever told me that it could be a strength, until now. I always have the urge to help people, and eventually do that through internalizing people's problems…I am acutely aware of every person's tone of voice, use of words, facial expressions, and body gestures…I think school saved me because it gave me a way to ignore all of that stuff: by keeping my mind focused on something, I ignored everything else. Out of school, I started slipping into depression…Then I started law school and it got worse: there is a dearth of information that I need to learn and having analyzed everything repeatedly and overanalyzing everything until I slipped deeper into depression…I recently got onto meds and those have saved me…I still notice gestures, facial expressions, etc., but am not as affected by them lately…I don't know if I have LLI or just am a sensitive person…I'm just learning to control it recently…using my brain to filter out what's important and what's not…and it's been helping…sometimes, in times of stress, it is just difficult because I just get too tired…thanks for reading. – k
Indeed it has been very interesting to learn about LLI. In line with what Swedish Lady has mentioned, it also explains a lot of my abilities too. It is blessing in many ways, especially when I have total control. However, it is a nightmare when I have to deal with people. In my case as a process engineer who?s job relies on analysis and imagination, it is hard and so depressing when I try to communicate what I see, analyze and then picture as outcomes, to people around me. When I look into their eyes, it seems to me like I am talking to walls. On the positive side, it sooo rewarding to see, weeks, months and some times years later, that they finally see (and pay for) what it seemed to be crystal clear to me (but again is so depressing 'cause it is usually too late). I totally understand when you said it is both blessing and great problem. To answer your question, the only thing you can do is to train yourself on listening to people and ??..smile.
I to saw the episode of prison break, and also found it of great interest.
Reading through your article on latent inhibition I noticed many delberate 2mistakes2 and was figuring that by noticing these "added" stimuli that perhaps I to show signs of LI, I have proved on several papers to have an outstanding iq compared to all of my peers. When I sat my year two SATS tests I showed then at an early age that I had a very high iq and have done so ever sinc. On the question of creativity I have also shown very high levels e.g at the age of seventeen I was offered a scholorship to study an HND in fine art and photography at stafford university at which time I was already studying for my ND in the same subject. Is it then perhaps possible that I myself fail to shut out as many stimuli as most people?
I would be intersted to hear your personal ideas on the matter, your thankfully R Slater.
i have low latent inhibition i noticed it wen i saw an image of my self typing on the ceiling. NO this is not photographic memory. i can see every little detail all at once. i also have super natural hearing 1-3miles. NO i dont have x-ray vision. all my senses are ten-folded. i am able to taste of what i smell. that is how good my sense of smell is. someone opened a bottle of mocha while i was eating suddenly i tasted the mocha in my mouth.
MY email is xxtc1022xx@yahoo.com
if anyone have any questions about low latent inhibition im honored to answer ur questions. Since its coming from a person who has low latent inhibition. Even though i am only 16 i discovered it at age 15. This girl name stephanie chiang who was following me which she activated by ability allowing me to see myself typing on the ceiling moving literally typing moving hands. She followed me for 2months and ends up leaving with another guy named peter kang she asked him out to sades. -_- lucky
Until I actually watched prison break, I never realised that the way I think and see things was out of the ordinary. I have always known that I have a drastically high IQ, but frankly I always found that to be a sort of burden. I as finally clasified with LLI and everything sort of makes more sense to me and everyone else. It doesn’t really change anything, but knowing it is still pretty neat.
hi! what a cool info to talk ’bout-LLI, ‘prison break’ is juz totally awesome, im studyin medicine & that kinda stuff really catches my attention, anyway congrats to wentworth miller for his brilliant role! he juz nailed it! i guess he himself is a genius, well jeff.. how ’bout u tell me that…
How are all these people being diagnosed? There are so many messages here that start with, "I have LLI…" Are these all self-diagnoses?
Also, it's seems people are confusing LLI and creative thinking. LLI, as I understand it, simply makes you notice more. But the examples people use when they talk about this, like "associating a yellow lamp with a bannana or sponge bob square pants" are not about noticing more information. Instead, these are examples of processing that information and making associations.
I am interested in this for the same reason everyone else is, it may help explain my experience. I often feel over-stimulated and just want to go home and hide for a while. Look, I know everyone gets tired and wants to rest. But I'm saying that if I don't get three or four hours a day with no one else around talking to me, I feel stressed out. I really need my down time.
I often can't stop noticing things that irritate me to death: the sound of other people chewing is one of the worst. I just can't shut it out. And, as someone else mentioned, the exact mood of every colleague registers loudly.
Interesting by-products: computer games are highly appealing. Perhaps because, by absorbing my attention, they allow me to escape the other stimuli.
I would also like to hear about the connection between LLI and alcohol and drug use. I drink to make my brain shut up.
Last one: concentration. Someone mentioned that problem solving required concentration and that LLI would be distracting. But think about it this way. Someone who notices more information can better see patterns in that information, and perhaps become absorbed in those patterns. LLI is not ADD. If fact, concentrating on one thing is a way to relieve the stress of noticing so many other things.
What do you think?
P.S.
Which comes first, the stress or the LLI? The research says stress hormones induce a state of LLI, but LLI itself sounds pretty stressful. Maybe the real cause of LLI, at least in some cases, is an oversupply of stress hormones.
P.P.S.
Ok, if you've read this far, you can read one more. I completely disagree with those who say we are trapped in our own consciousness and can never know what it's like to be someone else. That's just BS. I get tired sometimes and that tells me something about what it would be like to suffer from Epstein-Barr, which makes you tired all the time. I get angry sometimes, so I know something about what it would be like to have an anger problem. As the research discussed above says, everyone experiences LLI in stressful situations. It's not some unknowable mystery.
Hi folks,
yip im another one, i saw prison break only recently and became interested in this theory, lli. ive certainly never been tested for it as ive only just discovered it possibly exists but it interestes me, in the subject of learning disabilities and if there could be some link. my dissertation is on dylsexia, and dyslexics for a fact are incredibly sensitive and intuitive to their own environment. interesting that someone earlier in the blog pointed out others spelling mistakes, well maybe theres a reason for it, who knows!im dyslexic and sometimes just want to switch off, my flatmate recently commented that i needed a switch on my head. ive always been a sociable person but in extremes and often one to one, as i easily get overwhelmed.i am a creative person, and often cannot stop chatting as i find stimulas in constant flurries, to the point that i can feel others emotions,read them and am known to be an excellent judge of character. sometimes this can get all a bit too much,i watch people and when you work part time in a shop, sometimes you cant help yourself talk to the person and look at the folk walking by, and i mean everyone walking by, its a concious effort to ignore when its all open plan. emotionally i can be a wreck because i over analyse, it also doesnt help my subject is psychology!relationships end up being more difficult than normal, because i have them sabotaged before they even begin which is sort of a seperate issue, but i obviously focus on the neg. there which is individual. sometimes i dont know why im so tired because ive not done a lot, its any wonder.i do have an intense ability to empathise however and to forgive. and identify with what the doc in pb said about michael becoming acutely aware to pain and suffering,and become some sort of rescuer. i seem to pick up all the issue ridden men going and have only recently become re-aquainted with a brilliant man who is quite normal much to my relief as in these relationships, 'we' becomes 'me, myself and I' whilst im left to nurture their me, myself and I. Its draining and sometimes i wonder if i should go into psychology or express myself through performance arts which ive been wanting to do for years. but whatever, we all live through a journey, whehter lli or not. just before i go, has anyone been so aware of things that theyre aware of such things as their grill going on fire even though they cant see it, hear it or smell it and purposely seek out if there is a problem to find that there is?i did this not long ago. id also be interested in lli and the paranormal if anyone wants to have a say on that one. ive had many spirit experiences, and maybe this is due down to my vast open mind and personality?dont know,overwhelm me!xxx
oh yeh and another thing, dyslexics often have the syndrome scotopic sensitivity which is when they perceive things at a much higher contrast, therfore finding harsh lights blinding and painful to be around (hence changes in the classroom environment)someone suggested that it would be interesting to see id ss sufferers actually perceived things and people differently entirely, so maybe lli is an effect of this stress that such contrasted stimuli can create rather than the direct issue?kx
The most personal and thought-provoking account of LLI I found on-line was at this site: http://www.dynamicbalancingtaichi.co.uk/LowLatentInhibition.htm
The author is very pragmatic, matter-of-fact and in no way whimsical.
When you read his 800 page website in detail you are quite convinced that he is not making it up.
Finally – someone who sounds real! When you read that fella's website it no longer sounds quite so trendy.
How many of you people even have LLI?
Everyone seems so eager to get one the bandwagon here.
The dysfunction probably affects one in a million people, yet amazingly everyone on the globe with LLI has found this blog….? I don't think so.
Have you had it diagnosed?
Maybe you just have low self-esteem and claim LLI because you think it will make you special?