DECISION-MAKING PARALYSIS IN GIFTED INDIVIDUALS: FUNCTIONAL NEUROANATOMY, NEUROCHEMISTRY, AND GENOMIC BASES OF MALADAPTIVE PERFECTIONISM

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.0159672604062

• Palavras-chave: giftedness; decision paralysis; DWRI intelligence; maladaptive perfectionism; Compensated Structural Savantism; Executive Functions; COMT; prefrontal cortex.

• Keywords: giftedness; decision paralysis; DWRI intelligence; maladaptive perfectionism; Compensated Structural Savantism; Executive Functions; COMT; prefrontal cortex.

• Abstract:

  Gifted individuals who investigate deeply and hesitate before deciding are not merely being meticulous. There is something neurobiological happening there, involving anatomical localization, chemical substrates, and, in a considerable number of cases, genomic traceability. This work stems from clinical and scientific observation of this recurring pattern and proposes to frame it as functional neurodiversity, not as a temperamental peculiarity. We examine the mechanism by which perfectionism that crosses the adaptive threshold, combined with avoidant patterns, produces actual executive blockage: the prefrontal cortex hyperactivates analysis while the limbic system inhibits the response, generating a processing cycle with no proportional outcome. Two theoretical constructs are presented: DWRI Intelligence, which integrates the dorsolateral, ventromedial, and orbitofrontal axes of the prefrontal cortex into an integrative model distinct from classical giftedness, and Compensated Structural Savantism, which refers to individuals with morphology close to the Savant phenotype but who use their own logic as a prosthesis for underlying adaptive deficits. The anterior cingulate cortex appears as the central point of the checking loop that paralyzes executive finalization. At the genomic level, three variants stand out as direct modulators of this dynamic: COMT rs4680 Val/Val, SLC6A4 5-HTTLPR, and DRD4. The central hypothesis underpinning this work is that genuine genius is not defined by the absence of internal disorder, but by the metacognitive capacity to reorganize this chaos through logical awareness—a process that carries a real metabolic cost and can lead to executive exhaustion when unrecognized.