For centuries people have been fascinated by the habits of creative people. But is there something that regular people can do to unlock the creative potential of Dickens and Beethoven?
Research suggests that the key may be distracting part of your brain, while the rest is left to wander, as the new episode of BrainCraft explains.
In order to understand more about how to increase creativity, we first need to know how the brain comes up with ideas. And, no, the left hemmisphere of the brain isn't solely responsible for creative thought, despite what you might have heard.
The process is actually controlled by the interaction of three different structures scattered around your brain - the executive attention network, the imagination network and the salience network.
The executive attention network is the part of your working memory that's active when you're focussed on a complex task, like calculus homework. The imagination network creates mental simulations about future events, as you might expect, and the salience network monitors your internal consciousness and what's happening outside of your body.
Studies have shown that when all three of these structures are working equally, creative thinking is diminished. But simply by reducing the activity of the executive attention network a little bit, you can boost creativity and come up with more ideas.
So how exactly do you do that? Watch the new episode of BrainCraft above to find out.
Source: Braincraft