“THE STATE OF
CREATIVITY IS A
DIFFERENT
FUNCTIONAL BRAIN
STATE.”118 february 2019
Reader’s Digest
Jazz musicians aren’t the only
folks whose brains show unique
signs of creativity unleashed. In the
past decade, the field of improvisa-
tional 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
brain; 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 abil-
ity 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 hun-
dreds of hours of practice. Explains
Rex Jung, a professor of neurosurgery
at the University of New Mexico
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
colors will mix well. The more jokes
you have told, the easier it is to know
which punch lines will draw the most
laughs.
Moreover, although it seems a little
counterintuitive, improvisation itself
is a skill that you can improve with
practice. In a 2018 study at Columbia
University, researchers showed that
musicians who regularly practiced
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