No.
Just no.
Stop it.
Please.
Thoughtful cognitive neuroscientists such as Rex Jung, Darya Zabelina, Andreas Fink, John Kounios, Mark Beeman, Kalina Christoff, Oshin Vartanian, Jeremy Gray,
Hikaru Takeuchi and others are on the forefront of investigating what
actually happens in the brain during the creative process. And their
findings are overturning conventional notions surrounding the
neuroscience of creativity.
The latest findings from the real neuroscience of creativity suggest that the right brain/left brain distinction is not the right one when it comes to understanding how creativity is implemented in the brain. Creativity does not involve a single brain region or single side of the brain.
Instead, the entire creative process– from
the initial burst of inspiration to the final polished product– consists
of many interacting cognitive processes and emotions. Depending on the
stage of the creative process, and what you’re actually attempting to create, different brain regions are recruited to handle the task.
Importantly, many of these brain regions work as a team to get the job done, and many recruit structures from both the left and right side of the brain. In recent years, evidence has accumulated suggesting that “cognition results from the dynamic interactions of distributed brain areas operating in large-scale networks.”
Depending on the task, different brain
networks will be recruited. For instance, if you’re attempting to
mentally rotate an image in your mind (e.g., trying to figure out how to
fit luggage into the trunk of your car), the Visuospatial Network is
likely to be active. This network involves communication between the
posterior parietal cortex and frontal eye fields.
The Visuospatial Network
If your task makes greater demands on language, however, Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area are more likely to be recruited.
The Language Network
But what about creative
cognition? Three large-scale brain networks are critical to
understanding the neuroscience of creativity across domains. Let’s
review them here.
Network 1: The Attentional Control Network
The Attentional Control Network is recruited when a task requires that the spotlight of attention is focused like a laser beam. This network is active when you’re concentrating on a challenging lecture, or engaging in complex problem solving and reasoning that puts heavy demands on working memory. This
neural architecture involves efficient and reliable communication
between lateral (outer) regions of the prefrontal cortex and areas
toward the back (posterior) of the parietal lobe.
Network 2: The Imagination Network
According to Randy Buckner and colleagues,
the Default Network (referred to here as the Imagination Network) is
involved in “constructing dynamic mental simulations based on personal
past experiences such as used during remembering, thinking about the
future, and generally when imagining alternative perspectives and
scenarios to the present.” The Imagination Network is also involved in social cognition.
For instance, when we are imagining what someone else is thinking, this
brain network is active. The Imagination Network involves areas deep
inside the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobe (medial regions), along
with communication with various outer and inner regions of the parietal
cortex.
Green= The Attentional Control Network; Red= The Imagination Network
Network 3: The Attentional Flexibility Network
The Attentional Flexibility Network (typically referred to as the “Salience Network“) constantly monitors
both external events and the internal stream of consciousness and
flexibly passes the baton to either the Attentional Control or
Imagination Network depending on whatever information is most salient to
solving the task at hand. This network consists of the dorsal anterior
cingulate cortices [dACC] and anterior insular [AI] and is important for
dynamic switching between the Attentional Control and Imagination
Networks.
The Attentional Flexibility Network
The Neuroscience of Creative Cognition: A First Approximation
The key to understanding the neuroscience
of creativity lies not only in knowledge of these large-scale networks,
but in recognizing that different patterns of neural activations and
deactivations are important at different stages of the creative process.
Sometimes, it’s helpful for the networks to work with each other, and
sometimes such cooperation can impede the creative process.
In a recent large review,
Rex Jung and colleagues provide a “first approximation” regarding how
creative cognition might map on to the human brain. Their review
suggests that when you want to loosen your associations, allow your mind
to roam free, imagine new possibilities, and silence the inner critic,
it’s good to reduce activation of the Attentional Control Network (a
bit, but not completely) and increase activation of the Imagination and
Attentional Flexibility Networks. Indeed, recent research on jazz musicians and rappers engaging in creative improvisation suggests that’s precisely what is happening in the brain while in a flow state.
However, sometimes it’s important to bring
the Attentional Control Network back online, and critically evaluate and
implement your creative ideas.
Or else this can happen:
As Jung and colleagues note, their model of
the structure of creative cognition is only a first approximation. At
this point, we just have leads on the real neuroscience of creativity.
The investigation of large-scale brain networks does appear to be a more
promising research direction than investigating the left and right
hemispheres; the creative process appears to involve the dynamic
interplay of these large-scale networks. Also, converging research
findings do suggest that creative cognition recruits brain regions that
are critical for daydreaming, imagining the future, remembering deeply
personal memories, personal constructive reflection, making meaning, and social cognition.
Nevertheless, much more research is needed
that investigates how the brain creates across different domains,
species, and timescales.
It’s an exciting time for the neuroscience
of creativity, as long as you ditch outdated notions of how creativity
works. This requires embracing the messiness of the creative process and
the dynamic brain activations and collaborations among many different
brains that make it all possible.
© 2013 Scott Barry Kaufman, All Rights ReservedDisclaimer: I was one of the reviewer’s of the paper by Rex Jung and colleagues.
image credit #1: io9; image credit #2, 3, & 5: findlab.stanford.edu; image credit #4: pnas; image credit #6: photocase
About the Author: Scott Barry Kaufman is a
cognitive psychologist interested in the development of intelligence and
creativity. He applies a variety of perspectives to come to a richer
understanding and appreciation of all kinds of minds and ways of
achieving greatness. He is adjunct assistant professor of psychology at
New York University, author of Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined, and co-founder of The Creativity Post. Follow on Twitter @sbkaufman.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/2013/08/19/the-real-neuroscience-of-creativity/?WT.mc_id=SA_Twitter_sciam
