Do You Have A Creative Brain? Here’s What Scientists Think It Means.
New research challenges some of the existing assumptions about the topic.
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Subscribe for free to get more stories like this directly to your inboxWe all have moments of creativity, but for some of us it’s more of a constant drive than an occasional inclination. And a new study suggests that there are some interesting neurological traits in the brains of those who are especially creative.
Digging into the data
According to a report recently published in the Brain and Cognition journal, one of the most intriguing characteristics of creative individuals relates to how they respond to life’s curveballs. Unusual (or as the researchers put it, “oddball”) stimuli evokes a more muted brain reaction from creative folks than in the general population.
By processing surprising information more casually, scientists think such individuals are capable of tapping into a broader spectrum of possibilities, thus aiding their innate ability to create new things.
This runs contrary to earlier hypotheses describing creative brains as less capable of controlling cognitive function. Instead, the report’s authors argue, the difference merely lies in how stimuli is processed upon being registered in the brain.
Another notable discovery is that creative people are more likely to pursue a variety of projects regardless of whether they actually enjoy them.
Bringing it all home
After conducting a pair of studies using brain scans and other observations to track how participants responded to “oddball” information, researchers compiled their findings into an academic report. But if you’re one of those creative individuals we’ve been discussing, you might want something a little less dull.
Study author Madeleine E. Gross boiled it all down into a succinct statement: “When tackling a creative problem, we often get stuck on the ‘obvious’ aspects, making it challenging to think outside the box and notice unusual elements within the problem space. Our study found that creative individuals do not perceive unusual information as odd; they process it similarly to typical information.”
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