Sailing a Boat on Dry Land

Legend has it that a New Year's Chinese tradition of "Sailing a Boat on Dry Land" had its origins in the reigns of Emperors Yao and Shun.

Four-thousand years ago, China had a serious problem: the Yellow River, aka "China's Sorrow", had a strange and unpredictable habit not only of flooding, but of physically changing its course!

Every time this happened, the countryside got into chaos. Countless victims drowned; far more were just relocated. Not to mention the impact on farmland, the devastation of which could signal starvation across the kingdom.

Now, you might be wondering, "What does sailing a boat on dry land have to do with a misbehaving river?" Well, buckle up, because we're about to take a journey through the fascinating human brain and its potential for solving the most unusual problems.

Imagine you own a river, and this particular river keeps changing its mind, and your subjects are getting a bit saturated with water. What do you do?

If you're Emperor 'Yu the Great', you don't just build a wall (that comes later in Chinese history). No, you get creative. You decide to "sail" your boat on dry land.

But before we dive into Yu's ingenious solution, let's take a moment to appreciate the marvel that is the human brain. This three-pound lump of gray matter is the ultimate problem-solving machine.

Our brains have an uncanny ability to connect seemingly unrelated dots, to see patterns where others see chaos, and to come up with solutions that are so out-of-the-box, they're practically in another warehouse. It's this ability that has allowed us to survive and thrive as a species, from inventing the wheel to creating memes about inventing the wheel.

But how does this marvelous organ actually work its magic? Well, it's not actually magic (sorry to disappoint), but a complex interplay of neurological processes that would make even the most complex computer algorithm blush.

When faced with a problem, our brain doesn't just sit there looking pretty. First, it activates the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for executive functions like planning and decision-making.

Next, the brain taps into its vast network of memories and experiences, stored in various regions like the hippocampus and the neocortex, it's pulling out relevant information and past experiences that might be useful. It also connects to a vast ocean of information, but that is a topic for another day.

But here's where it gets really interesting. The brain doesn't just retrieve information; it connects it in new ways. This process, known as divergent thinking, is where creativity truly shines.

It's like taking ingredients from different recipes and creating a whole new dish. Sometimes it's a delicious breakthrough, and sometimes it's a cognitive equivalent of pineapple on pizza – controversial, but potentially genius.

All of this happens in milliseconds, with billions of neurons firing and communicating through a vast network of synapses.

A recent study published in the journal "Nature Neuroscience" has shed light on how our brains navigate the choppy waters of decision-making under uncertainty.

It was discovered what its call "neural noise" - a phenomenon that might sound like a problem but could actually be the secret sauce of creative problem-solving.

"Neural noise is like the brain's way of jazz improvisation," lead researcher Dr. Fairhall explains. "It introduces small, random fluctuations in neural activity that can lead to unexpected connections and creative solutions."

This neural noise increases in situations of uncertainty, effectively pushing the brain to explore a wider range of possibilities.

It's like the brain is saying, "Well, I'm not sure what to do here, so let's try everything!"

This discovery could explain why some of our best ideas come when we're faced with unfamiliar challenges. It's not just about what we know; it's about how our brains play with that knowledge in unpredictable ways.

Now, let's go back to our friend Emperor Yu and his dry land sailing adventure. Faced with the Yellow River, Yu didn't just throw his hands up and say, "Well, that's nature for you!" No, he got creative (for a very very very long time).

Instead of trying to control the river directly, Yu and his team devised a system of canals and dikes that would guide the water rather than contain it. They essentially created a network of "dry land rivers" that could manage the flow of water across the landscape.

This solution was so effective that it not only solved the flooding problem but also improved situation for agriculture.

Speaking of making connections, Dr. Danielle Bassett and her team at the University of Pennsylvania have been studying what they call the "network neuroscience of creative cognition."

Their research suggests that creativity isn't just about individual brain regions lighting up. Instead, it's about how different parts of the brain communicate and work together.

"We found that during creative tasks, there's increased connectivity between regions of the brain that don't typically communicate," Dr. Bassett explains. "It's like different departments in a company suddenly starting to collaborate in new ways."

The researchers found that the more creative the solutions, the more unusual the patterns of brain connectivity.

This research suggests that to boost our creative problem-solving abilities, we might need to focus less on individual skills and more on fostering connections between different areas of knowledge and experience.

It's not just about what you know, but how flexibly you can combine and recombine that knowledge.

One way and a very powerful one is music.

Art, particularly music, can help us develop the brain connectivity we need for creative problem-solving. It turns out that engaging with music, whether by playing an instrument or simply listening attentively, is like sending the brain to stretch and lift.

"Playing music is the brain's equivalent of a full-body workout," says Dr. Anita Collins, a neuromusical educator. "It engages practically every area of the brain at once, especially the visual, auditory, and motor cortices."

This simultaneous engagement of multiple brain regions strengthens the connections between them. Remember our discussion about Dr. Bassett's research on creative cognition? Playing music is like putting that process on full power.

Learning to play an instrument also enhances executive function, those high-level cognitive processes that include problem-solving, memory, and decision-making.

But what if we are more of a listener than a player? Good news! Just listening to music can also boost the brain's problem-solving powers.

So, whether we are facing a flooding river or a more day-to-day challenges, consider adding a little music to your problem-solving toolkit. Play an instrument, listen to your favorite tunes, or even try a bit of improvisation. You might find that the solution to your problem comes not in a flash of insight, but in a wave of melody.

After all, if we can sail boats on dry land, who says we can't solve problems with a song?

*In the new series "The penguin" s01e02, a great example of a how a little tune from "Put the Blame on Mame" can solve a big gangster problem. Check it out.