The Neuroscience of Creativity

Let's Explore a little deeper

The brain has different regions that can handle different tasks.  The neuroscience of creativity suggests that the right brain/left brain distinction does not offer us the full picture of how creativity happens in the brain. Creativity does not involve a single brain region or a single side of the brain.

Instead, the entire creative process from preparation, to incubation, to illumination, to verification consists of many interacting cognitive processes (both conscious and unconscious) and even emotions. Depending on the stage of the creative process, and what you are actually attempting to create, different brain regions are enrolled to handle the task. Creative thought can be determined by how effectively the brain can communicate between the different regions that usually work separately.

Three distinct brain networks are the key to creative thinking

These are known as the executive control network, the default network, and the salience network.

These three large-scale networks that span both hemispheres and aid in creative thinking detail as:

The Executive Attention Network:  activates and operates when a person needs to focus. This network is active when you are concentrating, for example, on a challenging lecture or engaging in complex problem solving and reasoning.

The Default Network:  also referred to as the Imagination Network is related to brainstorming and daydreaming.  It is involved in constructing dynamic mental simulations based on personal past experiences such as used during remembering/recollecting, thinking about the future, and generally when imagining alternative perspectives and scenarios to the present. The Default Network also supports social cognition. For instance, when we are imagining what someone else is thinking.

The Salience Network: detects environmental stimuli and switches between the executive and default brain networks.

Daydreaming

Mind-wandering, or daydreaming, is really good for your creativity.  As our minds tend to wander, different parts of our brains get activated, accessing information that may have previously been dormant or out of reach.  Novel solutions tend to 'pop' into our minds when we least expect it.

Creativity is fostered by tasks that allow the mind to wander

Creativity appears when we allow for unconscious, unfiltered, or random sensations to arise in the flow state.  This happens when the part of the brain that allows self-criticism, is turned down.

Divergent thinking & Creativity

“Divergent thinking” was a term coined by psychologist J.P. Guilford in 1956 (although commonly cited as 1967). It is the ability to generate many ideas or solutions from a single idea or even a piece of information.  Divergent thinking is not the same as creative thinking. However, it is definitely a good indicator of creative potential!

Divergent thinking tends to be more spontaneous and free-flowing.  However, it can be fostered and holding oneself in the "problem space", consciously not pursuing the first solution that comes to mind, is one method to foster it.  Individuals try to keep their minds open to any possibilities that present themselves. The more possibilities they come up with, the better their divergent thinking.  A well run brainstorming session is another technique that enhances divergent thinking.

We are able to consciously influence ourselves to embed and employ greater creativity.  Not just by practicing and doing exercises that require creativity or by being creative, but also by using our executive network to invoke our salience network by scanning actively for more divergent thoughts, and by disinheriting our suppression of such divergent thoughts.

Related pages:

• Creating a Safe Zone

• The Neuroscience of Trust

Image Credits:

Hasenkamp, Wendy. (2014). Using First-Person Reports During Meditation to Investigate Basic Cognitive Experience. 10.1007/978-3-319-01634-4_5