When a new idea emerges, the feeling of uniqueness that makes such a special experience has a direct correlation in your brain cells: a completely new set of neurons have come together to make this thought possible. Of course, everything that happens in your brain is, technically speaking, a network. Remember that washing your hands is a network of neurons shooting in some orderly manner. But this does not make it an insight. It turns out that good ideas have certain signature patterns in the networks that create them. The creating brain behaves differently than the brain performing a repetitive task. Neurons communicate differently. Networks in the brain take different forms.
A good idea is a network and a particular constellation of neurons; Thousands of them synchronize with each other for the first time in your brain, as a result a new idea appears that appears in your mind. Because of the huge size of the network: you can not have insight with three shots of neurons. The network must be densely populated.
Since the 1990s, a new exciting technology has emerged for cognitive psychologists in nuclear medicine: brain imaging using positron emission tomography. Brain visualization allows psychologists to see what happens in the brain while people think. This technology uses powerful machines originally developed for medical diagnoses to develop three-dimensional images that show how brain activity changes while the mind is engaged in cognitive tasks. Brain visualization underlies the new field of cognitive neuroscience. In a cognitive neuroscience experiment, a researcher develops a simple task for a research participant. The participant participates in the task while his head is inside the brain scanner. By studying brain activity when a person is engaged in a particular task, researchers can draw conclusions about which areas of the brain are related to this task.
Thanks to the visualization of the brain, we now know that every second, when our eyes are open, millions of visual signals enter as photons of light, are converted into electrical impulses of our retina. Then they are transmitted through our optical nerves to different areas of our brain, where signals are analyzed, filtered, compared, classified and recombined so that they appear in the form of complete images that we see in our heads. This whole process occurs hundreds of times a second, completely unconsciously, and neurologists are now just beginning to understand how it all works.
The “wiring” of the brain develops by experience. Information that penetrates your eyes, ears, and other senses can be captured, because the connections between nerve cells or neurons can change within a second, forming a new connection. The transmission of a message from one neuron to another occurs at the speed of illumination. A neuron can send a signal, restart itself and send another signal up to 400 times per second. The total number of connections between neurons is one hundred trillion. It is 100 with 12 zeros after it. This is equal to the total number of stars in 1500 galaxies of the Milky Way. Each neuron connects between 1000 and 10,000 other neurons, through connections called synapses.
Now we know that the adult brain can generate new neurons, contrary to the previous belief that all neurons are present at birth. Neuroscientists have found that the brain is much more plastic than we were previously aware of, in other words, patterns of neuron activation may change with time with experience. Of course, our brain must change every time we learn something, even the name of the person we met yesterday, but the plasticity of the brain is much more extensive than a simple study of the facts; the physical structure of the brain may change.
So where is the creativity? There is no scientific evidence of the widespread perception that creativity occurs in the right hemisphere of the brain. No one has ever found a specific place for the brain to be creative. And there is no scientific basis for the popular opinion that there are two broad types of personality, corresponding to the dominant "right hemisphere" or the dominant "left brain". Perhaps the earliest application of research with the division of the brain into creativity, suggested that the left hemisphere blocks the function of the right hemisphere, thereby blocking creativity. But today, most neuroscientists reject this “inhibitory” model, and instead believe that the hemispheres work together in creativity, each of which contributes to a different force.
The idea that creativity is in the right brain is false, a myth that has been going on for a long time. Scientific studies show that creativity is not a specific, identifiable trait that can be localized in one area of the brain. Creativity is in different parts of the brain depending on the area; various subcomponents of ability in the same domain are located throughout the brain; and the location of these different subcomponents seems to be different for trained and untrained people. Creativity is not in the right brain; it is an integral brain function that uses many different areas of the brain in a complex systemic way. Therefore, creativity includes the whole brain.
Creativity is based in all brain processes, and not in a separate part of the brain. Every normal, healthy person is able to engage these brain processes; because they are necessary for everyday functioning. The question is, “how can you move your brain to the more creative network?” To make your mind more innovative, you need to place it in environments that use the same network signature: networks of ideas or people that mimic neural networks of the mind, exploring the limits of opportunity. Therefore, good ideas are not brought out of thin air; They are built from a collection of existing parts. The trick with good ideas is not to sit in nice isolation and try to think big thoughts; rather, you need to get more details on the table.
Creativity is not encoded in our genes, and most scientists agree that there is no "creativity gene." Creativity is not inherited. Psychological data shows us that such a gene can not be; research shows that creativity is based on everyday cognitive processes, the same mental abilities that are used in non-creative activities. Cognitive neuroscience shows that when people engage in creative tasks, they use areas of the brain that are commonly used in a wide range of daily activities. Although there may be genes associated with these general cognitive abilities, these large studies show that there can be no genes that are characteristic of creativity.
