Understanding Creativity - With Neuroscience

Neuroscience is shedding light on many areas of human behaviour - including the creative process. So is it the case that you are either a creative person, or you are not? Can our developing understanding of the creative process help us become more creative? How does it work?

Behind almost everything we do and say is a creative thought. From the car we drive to work to the sandwich we eat for lunch and the movie we watch in the evening - it all started with an idea.

And in the workplace, solving problems often requires creative thinking. We therefore owe it to ourselves to understand creativity better.

The creative brain

The creative process is not centred on a specific area of the brain; rather, creative thoughts are a result of neural activity in several different cerebral regions.

There are generally considered to be two stages to the creative process:

1. Experimentation and the creation of new concepts or works
2. Rehearsing, editing and assessing the final product

To further understand this, we need to consider several of the brain's networks thought to play a part in the creative process.

The 'executive attention' network

Some creative tasks involve intense concentration; this calls for the 'executive attention' network to be exercised.

This controls attention and working memory, and is often more active in the rehearsing, editing and assessing stage rather than the initial experimentation stage. It adds extra focus to the final touches.

The 'default' network

Allowing freedom of the mind to be distracted and to 'wander' is another important part of creativity, where the 'executive attention' network is less influential.

Here the 'default' or 'imagination' network might take over, where daydreaming and removal of focus on the outside world becomes key. This helps in self-reflection and recalling past events, helping us build new pictures based on previous experiences.

The 'salience' network

The 'salience' network helps the brain decide which sensory inputs to pay attention to and which to ignore.

It is thought to help us 'switch' between relevant networks of neurons, turning the most appropriate groups on or off, depending on the situation: we might need the 'executive attention' network or a freer flow of creative thoughts based on emotions and sensory inputs, depending on the task at hand.

Clearly, composing a piece of music or drawing a picture requires different creative skills to solving a complex problem in the accounting department at work.

It is therefore not surprising that we use different parts of the brain to help us achieve them, though each could be said to require a 'creative' response.

Some creative tasks require a high degree of 'latent inhibition' - the ability to filter out the surrounding world - for example when writing an important report; others thrive on the distraction that seemingly 'irrelevant' inputs provide. Similarly, some tasks require extensive self-monitoring and control of actions, while others (like performing a jazz improvisation) will actively suppress it.

Clearly, the creative process is complex and neuroscience has just started to shed light on it. There is a long way to go, but it is sure to be an interesting journey.

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