Creative Thinking and Brain Activity

What is creativity? Creativity simply means the ability to create (According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary) i.e. the ability to fill the gaps, connect the dots and produce something new or bring about a solution not thought before. Creativity is a flow that comes naturally to us all. We are all creative by birth and we learn to be uncreative over the years. Young children are found to be more creative and it is also found that children start becoming less and less creative as they age. The article gives more information on this research. As we become older creativity is pushed aside due to commitments, jobs, and the day-to-day chores we perform. We forget that we are both social and creative animals not just social. Somehow the creative part gets buried somewhere. The good news is that anyone can be creative and at any age, we just have to focus on that area. We can take up a new skill and practice it, or just take a walk and try to observe something new. Probably we can write about what we feel or we can talk to our friends about something new that we observed or can paint or draw. Initially, we just have to do it, and believe me, our brains will start opening up to the varied possibilities. It is now understood that the entire brain works together in an act of creativity. The speed with which the different parts of the brain communicate and correlate during a creative process is to be marveled at. We all have the ability to think out of the box and we all can come up with ingenious solutions. Creativity is inborn in us, nature has made us all creative.

Fig(i): By Henry Vandyke Carter - Henry Gray (1918) Anatomy of the Human Body,Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3907047

Let us look at the pre-frontal cortex and hippocampus, two very important parts of the brain that contribute to creativity. Hippocampus is involved in constructing events, both past and future events i.e. recalling the different experiences (memory) and imagining the future. Episodic details of the past involving relevant people, places, objects, and actions aid in building up a framework. The framework along with a little/more imagination is then used differently to create distinct ideas depending on what is required, say for example forming an opinion, finding a solution for a current or a future problem, or for some curious activity. Hence both memory and imagination play a role in creativity. It has been reported that when people are trained to recall and elaborate on episodic memories, they are able to generate more ideas. When scanned hippocampus in the brain gets activated during idea generation. Creativity involves not just idea generation but idea evaluation too. And in the same study, it has been reported that  the frontal regions of the brain get activated during idea evaluation. 

The frontal cortex of the brain has always been thought to be associated with creativity. It is one of the most important regions of the brain as it is associated with fundamental cognitive processes and integrating mental functions. Experimental studies carried out in the past have demonstrated that any damage to the prefrontal area of the brain can impair creativity. The prefrontal cortex is considered to be a convergence hub of information received through various systems such as limbic system, sensory system and motor system. This part of the brain is also responsible for controlling our actions based on all the information gathered. The supervisory role of the prefrontal cortex enables it to mine information stored in memory. Prefrontal cortex's role of control, information gathering and recovery result in various human activities as planning, reasoning, problem solving, abstact thinking and also creative thinking. See the linked article for more information on this research.  

Also, communication between different regions of the brain during the process of idea generation and idea evaluation was found. The brain networks and different regions of the brain start to function and the process of creativity was found to heighten the activity of the brain. Although hippocampus and prefrontal cortex support and boost creative activity in the brain, it is important that these areas do not get affected by neurodegenerative diseases. Lesions, dementia and damages to the frontal lobes can diminish creativity.  Hippocampus has been found to be smaller in people with Alzheimer's disease, stress and depression.

There are other regions of the brain and network system that aid in creativity. We will study about these other regions and the highly developed network systems of the human brain in the coming issues.