Hacking My Brain ??
The brain of a creative genius is a massive switchboard. I'm trying to hack mine. ?? ??
Here's what I've learned. ??
People’s capacity to generate creative ideas is central to technological and cultural progress. Creativity requires the constant switching of specific brain connections. Curiosity is what forces those connections to happen. Creativity is output.
Creativity requires using networks in your brain—it must make connections and send countless signals for creativity to work. It's not a left or right brain activity. Highly creative thought is associated with increased activity within three different networks in the brain.
A cognitive neuroscience study by Roger Beaty's team used the models of network connectivity during creative thought experiments & predict a person’s capacity to create novel ideas by comparing the functional connectivity of their brain from fMRI data.
https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/115/5/1087.full.pdf
The connections between these 3 brain networks, & how quickly they interact, are predictors of how creative a person will be during a thought task. Amazing! This means that there are ways to improve your creative thinking with practice by focusing on each specific network.
The three brain networks it uses in the creative process:
- Executive attention network—regulates thoughts, emotions, and responses
- Default mode network—active in imagination and daydreaming
- Salience network—select which stimuli are deserving of our attention.
The Executive attention network is responsible for focus and targeted attention.
- Integrating lots of information
- Holding stuff in working memory
- Maintaining strategies
- Inhibiting obvious responses
The Default mode network is responsible for creative activities.
- Daydreaming and brainstorming
- Imagining and setting future goals
- Figuring out the perspective of others
- Understanding how someone feels
The Salience network is in charge of monitoring the internal stream of consciousness and external stimuli.
- Solving the problem at hand
- Tagging things as interesting (or not)
- Choosing sensations to pay attention to
- Switching brain between networks
These networks usually do not get activated at the same time. The results of Roger Beaty's study suggests that creative people are better able to co-activate brain networks that usually work separately.
The dual nature of creative thinking is fascinating—the ability to let your imagination run wild and at the same time to evaluate and contemplate ideas.
I spent 25 yrs figuring out how to produce consistent creative results in orgs...hacking the networks is how to do it!
Bryan Zmijewski—On a journey to make creative decisions more effective, satisfying, and rewarding. Husband. Dad. Designer. Chief Instigator ZURB since 1998. Try https://helio.app
Follow him at @bryanzmijewski, or send him a note at z@zurb.com