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Are the brains of highly creative people genuinely different than others? The answer, according to some recent neuroscience, is yes — but not in the way you may think. Many neuroscientific advances over the years have focused on identifying which specific parts of the brain correlate to particular talents or behaviors, which has been useful; knowing that the amygdala, for instance, is partially responsible for how we form emotional memories gives us a lot of insight into how this can go wrong with Alzheimer's disease or brain damage.
But this sort of brain science can also give rise to the erroneous idea that the brain is a bunch of separate bunches of tissue, all performing distinct jobs. Instead, their interconnection and how they share out particular neural responsibilities are an important part of the picture. And it's that connectivity that's in focus when it comes to new research about creativity.
What's this research good for? Well, it may go a long way towards demystifying artistic talent, which many of us still regard as a kind of divine "inspiration," rather than something that could be a combination of neural predisposition and dogged cultivation. It could also give us more insight into what happens when things go haywire in the brain's physical structure, and how that affects mental work and behavior, from epilepsy to memory loss. It's also, frankly, just deeply cool. Here's how creative brains function differently.
But It's Not Just The Connections — It's How Often They Change
There's another side to this, though. A study from the University of Warwick in 2016 made a huge splash because it provided an extra clue to how human intelligence works, and why artificial intelligence isn't there yet: how brain connections change. The Warwick scientists also looked at the resting brain, and found that creativity and intelligence seem to be tied not just to how brain regions are interconnected, but to how often those connections shift and recalibrate.
By looking at over 1000 people's brains over time, they saw that the bits of the brain that are most associated with learning, like the hippocampus and inferior temporal gyrus, show the highest "variability," shifting their connections with other regions often and rapidly. It may be an insight into the other aspect of connection's importance: creativity might not just be anchored in how well the brain's segments are interconnected, but in how often those connections evolve and recalibrate.
The idea that connectivity may lie behind high intelligence as well as creativity is also discussed by a study of Albert Einstein's brain released in 2013. Compared to other groups, Einstein showed a much higher level of connection between both side of his brain, which may have had an influence on his stupendous intellect and capacity for innovative ideas. It's not entirely clear whether we can enhance connectivity on our own at home, but it's definitely something to keep in mind for neuroscience of the future.