A fMRI study has shown that when jazz musicians improvise, the inhibition section of the brain shuts down. The researchers suggest that this is also the source of creativity, but I'm not so sure about that. The idea that a lack of inhibition is the same as creativity is a romantic notion that does not necessarily pan out. You can be creative with inhibitions, and you can be uninhibited and not be creative. I would suggest to the researchers (in case any of them happen across this blog) that they do fMRI studies of people writing poems in different styles. They should look at brains as people write in free verse, blank verse, and with more complex forms, like sonnets. I would be interested in seeing what happens.
Also, the jazz musicians are not working in a rule-less fashion, so it might be interesting to do a followup where the musicians are making noise on their instruments and see how that differs from uninhibited-yet-rule-following jazz.
2 comments:
I don't know about lacking inhibition, but creative people do have the characteristics of taking risks and being flexible. Maybe those are the same thing? (I'm taking a SMU class in creativity right now -- it's pretty durn awesome.)
One could make the argument that those are both forms of lacking inhibition, but in the great artists those are always combined with a great deal of control and discipline. I just spent 5 weeks this winter writing a 25 scene verse play. One might wonder where the creativity came in? When I conceived of the idea? Of the plot and characters? When I came up with a great line because it fit beautifully into the sonnet one of the characters was speaking? If the latter, it had far more to do with control and discipline than it did about taking risks -- though having someone speak in a sonnet in a play is taking a risk.
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