Creativity and Your Brain

Begin to examine the nature of creativity and what neuroscience can tell us about it. Look at traits that are associated with creative people and consider four distinct stages of creativity. Note the differences between artistic and scientific creativity. Then, take a first look at the structure of the brain and its organization. Study the creative brain’s major networks and their functions.

Explore current knowledge of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, taking stock of both early and more recent scientific thinking on the specialization of the hemispheres. Note how different aspects of creativity rely on different hemispheres, and how the left hemisphere is involved in key creative functions. Also, grasp how our early environment shapes brain development.

Assess Graham Wallas’s influential model of the creative process, breaking creativity into four fundamental stages. Contrast this with the work of Arne Dietrich, proposing four basic types of creativity, using examples of each of Dietrich’s types within science and art. Enjoy a groundbreaking series of interviews with creative people, and consider what they reveal about the creative process.

Can we define what is creative? Consider two basic features of a creative product and how meaning is both subjective and domain-specific. Investigate how our brains process information and assign meaning, and, in art, how the way we look determines what we see. Grasp how we endow objects with value, based in what we know about the creator of the product and the circumstances of its creation.

Look at three ways to identify especially creative people. First, examine personality traits that creative people may share, such as openness to new experiences, extraversion, and abstract or semantic thinking. Study two types of creative thinking and how they appear to correlate with scientists and artists. Finally, consider possible neurological and genetic components of creativity.

Investigate notions linking mental health issues with creativity. Review studies of creatives, looking at factors such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and findings indicating that certain psychological conditions may be beneficial in creative work. Then, consider the reverse: whether creative work fosters mental aberrations. Grasp the dangers of romanticizing mental illness in creatives.