Once defined, an interesting question arises: what brain networks are important for creative thinking? A nice article recently published in Trends in Cognitive Neuroscience (2016) summarizes the scientific findings on this issue, proposing that different information processing networks participate in creative thinking, collaborating with each other in the process of creating ideas and evaluating them. .
Roger E. Beaty of the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and other researchers review the findings about collaborative brain networks in creative thinking. There appear to be two important networks: the default neural network and the cognitive control network .
The first is more active when there are no external cognitive tasks, while the second is more active when attention has to be directed towards external stimuli, as in the case of working memory tasks. But the most important thing is that, as the authors describe, both seem to collaborate in the generation of creative thinking . His proposal, based on the findings of other research, suggests that the default network would participate in the generation of novel ideas and the cognitive control network would be responsible for evaluating these ideas and modifying them .
Reviewing previous works, it seems that these networks would be activated together in divergent thinking tasks , such as when someone is asked to generate different uses for the same object, when we ask musicians to do musical improvisation to generate certain emotions, or when professional poets are asked to write and revise verses.
Apparently, a common finding is that the default network (lower and middle posterior parietal areas) and the cognitive control network (lateral prefrontal areas and lower anterior parietal areas) cooperate in the process of evaluating ideas when they are to be addressed. An objective. It is interesting to observe how the brain organizes itself to create new ideas and to judge whether they fit a need. More than a brain with isolated areas, we find a connected and collaborative brain, an engineering marvel that continues to amaze us every day.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
