In neuroscience, creativity is defined as the ability to generate original and relevant ideas in a given context to solve a problem or improve a situation.
What is creativity?
The most recent data obtained, mostly from functional MRI, indicate that creativity depends on connectivity between several brain regions and relies on interaction between several brain networks. Two main networks are highlighted. The first, the network of executive control, is usually involved in the processes of cognitive control, those that enable us to exercise control over our thoughts, our actions, our behaviours in line with our objectives… The second is generally called the "default network", and would be involved in spontaneous cognition, as when we make associations of ideas, that we wander mentally. This network is said to play a role in the spontaneous generation of ideas, by association, whereas the executive control network makes it possible to constrain one’s search for ideas, manipulate them mentally, inhibit those that are not interesting and select those that are.
Assessing Creativity
There are three main approaches, i.e. three categories of experimental tasks, for assessing the creativity of individuals. These tasks are also used to explore the brain bases of creativity in neuroimaging.
The most widely used family of tasks is “divergent thinking,” in which participants are asked to give as many ideas as possible and unusual. For example, the task of alternative uses, for which they are asked what use they could make of a common object such as a pen or paper clip. We then look at the number of ideas proposed in a given period of time and how original the ideas are, i.e. how seldom were they mentioned by the participants.
A second approach, “associative combinations,” stems from a 1960’s theory that defines creativity as the ability to combine together things that are not usually associated with each other, that is, to create new associations and combinations. This capacity would be linked in part to the fluidity and flexibility of the organization of our knowledge in semantic memory, the storage of our knowledge about the world (objects, concepts, situations…). The task is to suggest three words to a participant, who must find a word related to each word. For example, "bread", "crop" and "grass" are associated with the word "wheat".
A third approach is to propose problems to be solved. One of the best known is the problem of the nine dots (below) where you have to connect all the dots by tracing 4 right segments, without lifting the pen. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to break out of the implicit square that one imagines and to draw segments that go beyond the framework.
Thus this type of problem makes it possible to study the ability to break the deadlock, to change perspectives and to restructure our mental conceptualization of the problem to consider other types of possible responses than those automatically and immediately evoked.
At Paris Brain Institute
Emmanuelle Volle’s group is interested in creative processes. Using a functional MRI morphometric method, the team identified several regions that vary in structure or activity depending on the creativity of individuals.
Apart from several cognitive training protocols, aimed at increasing one’s creativity, which have been published but which have yet to be solidified in terms of scientific proof and transfer to real life, there are factors that can probably be played out in one’s personal life.
This is often referred to as the “incubation phase.” This is the period between the time when an impasse in the resolution of a problem was reached and the time when the solution to the problem arose while doing something else. This phase is called "incubation" because it is thought that things are happening during this phase where there is no attempt to solve the problem and it favours having a Eureka. Authors have studied this phase and have shown that in the majority of studies, this incubation phase was beneficial, and even more so if one performed a task rather than doing nothing.
Isabelle Arnulf’s group (AP-HP/Sorbonne University) is interested in the influence of sleep on creativity. Narcoleptic people, who have privileged access to REM sleep, benefit from greater creativity, suggesting a link between this particular phase of sleep, REM sleep, and creative abilities. Very recently, the team’s researchers have shown that there is another phase of creativity when you fall asleep. Activating it requires finding the right balance between falling asleep quickly and not falling asleep too deeply. These “creative naps” could be an easy and accessible way to stimulate our creativity in everyday life.
