Tuesday 24 November 2015

Creativity Decoded


The one thing neuroscientists know for sure about creativity is it’s not one thing. The brain is creative in dozens and dozens of different ways, which is why training people to be more creative can be so difficult. Yet, what we do know is that creativity is always recombinatory — it’s the product of new information bumping into old ideas to produce something startlingly new.

What’s more, we also know that this recombinatory process always requires the interaction of three overlapping neural networks: attention, imagination and salience. Understanding how these networks work and how we can augment their effects gives long haul creatives some much needed leverage.

-Attention: This network governs executive attention or spotlight attention. It’s the go-to system for the hours-on-end laser-focus required by creativity. And this leads to an obvious intervention: anything that trains up attention, amplifies creativity. Almost any mindfulness practice will work or, if you prefer a more dynamic experience, the Flow Genome Project designed this Art of Flow video-meditation for those too twitchy to follow their breath.

-Imagination: The imagination network or, more formally, the default mode network (DMN), is all about mind-wandering. It’s what allows you to construct mental simulations of potential outcomes and test out creative possibilities. The trick here is you have to stop focusing on the problem you’ve been trying to solve to activate the DMN. This means turning off the spotlight attention system. Research shows the best way to pull this off is low-grade physical activity. I prefer gardening. Tim Ferris (see below) likes long walks. But Lee Zlotoff, creator of the TV show MacGyver and (no surprise) an expert on creative problem solving, has tested dozens of different activities, and found that building models—airplanes, dinosaurs, whatever—consistently produces the best results.

-Salience: This network monitors incoming information and tags it as important or irrelevant. The more salient info the brain detects, the more raw material it has to be creative. The big issue here is that familiarity breeds contempt—meaning, when we are locked into our normal routine this network usually runs on autopilot. It notices what it always notices. The secret to getting it’s attention is risk and novelty. New experiences and new ideas. Ceaseless adventure and constant reading are key. For the former, see this article I wrote on risk and creativity. For the latter, books are always better than magazines, newspapers, blogs etc.—I explain why in this piece for Forbes.

*The best book on all the different neuronal systems involved in creativity is neuroscientist and pioneering flow research Arne Dietrich’s recently released How Creativity Happens In the Brain. But be warned, this is not light summer fare. Dietrich is funny as hell, but the book is dense and—because it’s published by an academic publisher—expensive.

(article from Flow Hacker Nation)

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