“THE STATE
OF CREATIVITY
IS A DIFFERENT
FUNCTIONAL
BRAIN STATE.”Jazz musicians aren’t the only
folks whose brains show unique
signs of creativity unleashed.
In the past decade, the field of
improvisational neuroscience has
expanded to peer inside the brains of
rappers, classical musicians, stand-up
comics, caricature artists, writers and
even so-called divergent thinkers
(people who are excellent at thinking
on their feet).
These studies consistently show a
difference between people’s brains
when they are improvising and when
they are not. “So we’re quite con-
vinced,” Limb notes, “that the state
of creativity is a different functional
brain state, and it’s measurable.”
One of the first myths that this re-
search has debunked: ‘Right-brained’
people are more creative, while ‘left-
brained’ people are more analytical.
In fact, an analysis of the brain activ-
ity of more than 1,000 people revealed
that no one has a dominant side of the
Reader’s Digest126 juLy 2019brain; everyone uses the networks in
both the left and the right sides, and
both sides of the brain are intimately
involved in creativity and change.
Another debunked myth: The
ability to create on the fly is a talent
only certain people have, and they
have it from birth. Rather, research
finds that the best improvisers are
those who have honed their skill
over hundreds of hours of practice.
Explains Rex Jung, a professor of
neurosurgery at the University of New
Mexico, USA, who studies aptitude,
intelligence and creativity, “The
more time you devote to developing
a skill set, the more raw material you
have to draw on and the easier it is to
improvise.” The more paintings you
have done, the faster you can identify
which colours will mix well. The more
jokes you have told, the easier it is to
know which punchlines will draw the
most laughs.
Moreover, although it seems a little
counter-intuitive, improvisation itself
is a skill that you can improve with
practice. In a 2018 study at Columbia
University, researchers showed that
musicians who regularly practised
improvisation were better at it and
more quickly able to change chords
in a piece of music (while maintaining
a pleasant harmony) than musicians
who were accustomed to just follow-
ing what was written.
Science has also demonstrated
that improvisational creativity is not
restricted to the arts. Limb says that