Chapter 13: ON CREATIVITY

Imagination is a fundamental aspect of human nature. We imagine the realistic as well as the unrealistic when we can afford not to pay attention to the outside world. This is believed to be an adaptive process. I argued in chapters 6 and 7 that imagination may be rooted in the process of simulation-selection or offline reinforcement learning, whereby we reinforce high-value options in diverse circumstances we may encounter in the future. By mentally exploring different options and evaluating their potential value, we are better prepared to make optimal decisions in real-life situations. This may be one reason why we are drawn to fiction and dramas; they offer a platform to exercise our imagination and engage in this simulation-selection process. Unlike other skills, imagination is an innate ability that doesn't need practice or training. It is as natural and effortless as breathing.

How about creativity? Is it possible to boost one's creativity? If so, how? Since this book is not intended to expand on the neuroscience of creativity in a comprehensive manner, I suggest interested readers look for these books by Anna Abraham and Rex Jung and Oshin Vartanian. The first is a general and balanced introduction to the neural basis of creativity, and the second is a collection of writings by leading scientists in the field. Even though creativity is not the primary focus of this book, imagination and creativity are inextricably linked. Imagination does not necessarily yield creative ideas. Nor is imagination always necessary to generate creative ideas. However, creative ideas are often generated out of imagination. We examined potential neural processes underlying imagination during idle states (conscious rest and sleep) in chapters 3 and 6. In this chapter, we will try to relate what we have examined in the previous chapters to creativity. We will also examine the practical issue of how to become creative.

SPONTANEOUS CREATIVITY

Creativity refers to the capacity to yield new and valuable outcomes, such as scientific theories, artistic works, technologies, and solutions to various problems. There are two important elements of creativity: originality (novelty) and effectiveness (value, appropriateness, fit, or meaningfulness). A third factor is surprise, which is related to how unlikely it is that a given idea will be generated. An idea that is both original and useful but not surprising at all may not be considered creative. Creativity is highly relevant to imagination because imagination often yields original ideas. A study has shown that hippocampal damage, which impairs vivid imagination (see chapter 1), also disrupts creative thinking. Exuberant imagination, on the other hand, does not necessarily lead to a high level of creativity. This is because not all imaginations are of high value; in fact, imagination itself is value neutral. We may use our imagination to think about something totally useless or even antisocial.

Creativity is not a unitary faculty of the mind. It is 'a complex and multifaceted construct' that can manifest in many ways. Currently, there is no general consensus on how to divide creativity into subtypes. However, one may distinguish creativity according to its domain. For example, artistic creativity is different than scientific creativity. Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso are considered highly creative people in science and art, respectively, but not in other fields.

Here, we will adopt the classification proposed by Arne Dietrich. He distinguished deliberate versus spontaneous modes of information processing for creativity. We may come up with a novel solution to a problem at hand by focused reasoning. This type of creativity is referred to as deliberate creativity. It is believed that the prefrontal cortex (see chapter 9) plays a critical role in this process. In contrast, we often come up with creative ideas when we are relaxed without focusing on a particular problem or even during sleep. This type of creativity is referred to as spontaneous creativity. The default mode network is thought to be critical for spontaneous creativity.

Note that deliberate and spontaneous processes do not work independently for creativity. Rather, creative thinking usually involves a dynamic interplay between controlled and spontaneous processes. In terms of brain dynamics, creative thinking is thought to involve dynamic interactions among multiple large-scale neural networks (see chapter 10). In particular, dynamic interactions between the default mode network and the central executive network (or frontoparietal network, which includes the prefrontal cortex) are observed during diverse creative thinking tasks. The default mode network is thought to be associated with the spontaneous generation of ideas, while the central executive network is thought to oversee the evaluative process that constrains ideas to meet specific task goals. Here, to relate creativity to the primary thesis of this book—unconstrained imagination during idle states—we will focus only on spontaneous creativity.

MEMORY AND CREATIVITY

Let's recap the neural underpinning of imagination. The default mode network is activated in association with internal mentation during idle states (see chapter 1). This occurs when the hippocampus is synchronized with the neocortex and generates diverse activity sequences. Studies indicate that changes in neural connections take place in the hippocampus during the storage of new experiences as memories (see chapter 4). Later, when we can afford not to pay attention to the outside world, hippocampal inhibitory control is weakened, and the hippocampal neural network (especially the CA3 neural network) generates diverse activity sequences. During this process, the hippocampal neural network generates not only experienced but also unexperienced activity sequences (see chapter 3). This way, the hippocampal neural network supports both memory retrieval and imagination.

An important point here is that the content of imagination is not free from the content of memory. Because memory encoding accompanies changes in neural connections to facilitate the reactivation of experienced sequences, the hippocampal neural network inevitably generates activity sequences that are related to remembered (i.e., experienced) sequences. In other words, the hippocampus tends to regenerate activity sequences that are identical (memory retrieval) or related (imagination related to remembered events) to the experienced ones. According to the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis, we imagine future episodes by flexibly extracting and recombining elements of previous experiences (see chapter 2). Imagination is bounded by memory, and so is creativity.

DIVERSITY

What then can we do to enhance creativity? There is no magic trick, unfortunately. The content of imagination is constrained by the content of memory, and the content of memory is determined by our daily experiences and mental activities. Hence, the more our activities are related to something valuable, the more we are likely to come up with creative ideas.

Suppose you have been working on the solution to a challenging technological problem for many years. Let's also suppose that you have been paying attention to whatever else you have encountered that might be related to the problem. In that case, chances are that creative solutions to the problem could suddenly pop up in your mind when you are relaxed. Such 'eureka moments' (when great insights lead to discovery or invention) often take place at unexpected times. To enhance spontaneous creativity, therefore, one must pay attention to the things that could potentially lead to valuable outcomes. This does not mean that you must narrow down your interest to one specific topic. On the contrary, breadth of experience is the key to creativity. If your experience is limited to a narrow range of topics, then the scope of your imagination will likewise be narrow, which would be harmful to creativity.

As an analogy, consider our daily activities like we're preparing ingredients for a meal. The diversity of our experiences would correspond to the diversity of our ingredients. A chef can prepare many different dishes with diverse ingredients. However, if there are limited ingredients (e.g., only vegetables), even the most versatile chef may create only a limited range of dishes. Likewise, limited interests and limited experiences will inevitably narrow the scope and diversity of ideas that can be generated by imagination. Thus, it is helpful for creativity to pay attention to and get acquainted with diverse topics because creative ideas are often generated by combining knowledge and perspectives from multiple disciplines.

Many educational institutions emphasize diversity. Interacting with people with diverse backgrounds help widen one's scope. Reading on diverse topics is also an excellent way of widening one's perspectives without spending time and energy learning from actual experiences. Innovation implicates breaking the existing frame. Because it is difficult to predict in advance which experiences will help generate creative ideas in the future, we should pay attention to diverse (but likely to be valuable) topics so that the scope of imagination widens.

OPEN-MINDEDNESS

A creative idea would be useless if not utilized. An idea will remain just an idea without an effort to implement it. Sometimes it is difficult to assess the value of a new idea. Pushing forward an idea even with uncertainty in its value would facilitate innovation. This issue holds relevance not only to personal attitudes but also to organizational and societal cultures. Anthropologists can explain a great deal about the creativity and innovation of a society by simply looking into its culture. Suppose that when you propose a new idea your boss typically replies, 'Don't waste time on such useless things. Focus on what you were told to do.' That organization is far from being innovative. Similarly, if a society strictly prohibits ideas and expressions that stray from social norms, then that society is likely to remain static and obsolete. Group creativity is increasingly emphasized over individual creativity as technologies advance and many complex problems require multidisciplinary approaches. An important factor for group creativity is open-mindedness, which facilitates unconstrained exchange of ideas. For an organization and society to progress, failures and deviations must be allowed. In schools, teachers should encourage new attempts by students and be generous about failures. Open-mindedness embraces diversity, and diversity fosters creativity.

THREE Bs OF CREATIVITY

Now let's turn to more practical issues related to creativity. For the deliberate mode of creative thinking, we may consciously adopt several tactics, such as 'analogy, conceptual reframing (frame shifting), finding the right question, broadening perspective, reversal, juggling induction and deduction, abduction, dissecting the problem, tinkering, and play as well as a toolkit of heuristic search methods, such as means-end analysis, hill-climbing, working backwards, and trial-and-error.' We cannot use such deliberate tactics to enhance spontaneous creativity. However, we may indirectly promote spontaneous creativity by promoting the activity of the default mode network. It can be helpful to relax rather than exhaust your mind when you are faced with a difficult problem. This is referred to as the three Bs of creativity.

The three Bs stand for bed, bath, and bus. When you have run out of creative ideas, it is often helpful to sleep (bed) or relax (bath) and let go of deliberate, rational thinking. Traveling to a new place (bus) and getting exposed to novel stimuli will also refresh your brain and promote chances for creative ideas. According to a recent study, novel stimuli make hippocampal-prefrontal cortical neural connections flexible. The brain may seem idle when we take a rest. On the contrary, innovative ideas may appear while our minds wander freely during quiet rest and even during sleep (see chapters 1 and 3). When all deliberate attempts to solve a problem fail, try to get refreshed or relaxed and perhaps a brilliant idea will pop up spontaneously.

FLOW

Even if we try all three Bs, creative ideas won't magically appear if we are not prepared. For spontaneous creativity, we must ready our brains to generate creative ideas. In the long term, we have to pay attention to diverse subjects and widen our experiences to enhance the scope of our imagination. In the short term, we have to focus on a specific problem to facilitate spontaneous creativity to solve that particular problem. Without prior hard work and effort, simply putting yourself in the three Bs situation would not magically yield creative ideas.

In other words, conscious and deliberate efforts during non-idle states will enhance the chance of generating creative ideas during idle states. Let's assume that you need to solve an important problem (e.g., finding a novel way of proving a mathematical theorem or getting two political opponents to agree on something) within a week. In such a circumstance, focusing solely on that problem for an entire week will increase the chances of finding a solution for it.

You may experience 'flow' by deeply focusing on a particular problem. Flow is the state in which someone is so completely absorbed in a challenging but doable task that they lose awareness of everything else. 'Concentration is so intense that there is no attention left over to think about anything irrelevant, or to worry about problems. Self-consciousness disappears, and the sense of time becomes distorted.' Alternating between flow and relaxed states will increase the chances of generating creative ideas for the problem at hand. By deeply focusing on one specific issue, our neural networks will be shaped to process the information related to the problem. This will allow our imagination during the idle state to be filled with related information. Our brain will also be ready to capture a potentially creative idea when it pops up. Perhaps Archimedes went through a similar psychological process when he came up with a way to prove that a new crown made for King Hieron was not pure gold, before running naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting 'Eureka!'

KOAN CONTEMPLATION ZEN

One may adopt this procedure (alternating between flow and relaxed states) when faced with a difficult problem, be it scientific, artistic, or business-related. It can be also used to obtain insights leading to spiritual enlightenment. Koan-contemplation zen is a good example of this. The goal of Buddhism is to overcome suffering by understanding how your mind works ('seeing one's original mind'). One's thoughts and feelings do not arise randomly; there are lawful dynamics behind them ('dependent arising'). You may overcome your enslavement to your thoughts and feelings by fully realizing how they work.

Koan-contemplation zen, which is widespread in east Asian countries (China, Korea, and Japan), uses focused contemplation to achieve this goal. A zen student contemplates a koan, which is a short paradoxical statement, question, or parable, such as the following:

'Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?'

'What is your original face before your mother and father were born?'

Zen student: 'What is Buddha?'

Zen master: 'A shitty stick.'

Koans are not logical and don't always make sense. They are intended to provoke 'great doubt.' They stimulate you to break out of your ordinary mental loop and expand your scope of thinking. They are a means to 'give a shock to the egoistic mind shaped through conditioning and belief thinking reinforced during upbringing and conventional schooling.'

A breakthrough-koan (Hua-Tou or 'word head') practice typically lasts three to seven days. You must devote your full attention to it day and night during this period, as described here: 'A 'Hua-Tou' shines over my entire body and mind as though the bright full moon fills the sky at night. The Hua-Tou and I merge so that the distinction between the two disappears; the Hua-Tou becomes me, and I become the Hua-Tou. . . . I sink deep into the Hua-Tou rather than analyzing it as an objective. I reach to the bottom of the Hua-Tou so that there is no distance between me and the Hua-Tou, and there is no thought or feeling other than the Hua-Tou.'

This would correspond to a perfect flow state. Perhaps flow and relaxed states alternate during the breakthrough-koan practice so that the spontaneous creativity for generating new insights leading to spiritual enlightenment is maximized.

PERSISTENCE

We may come up with a creative idea that provides a full solution to the problem at hand. More often, however, the process of deriving the final solution is not so simple, particularly when we are faced with a complex problem. We may have to alternate periods of focused contemplation and relaxation multiple times before coming up with a sufficiently good solution to a problem. A creative idea may also turn out to be only a partial solution or it may create unexpected issues. We then have to practice the focused contemplation-relaxation cycle again (and again) to come up with a satisfactory solution. Often, therefore, you need to be persistent when you are faced with a challenging problem. 'The only genuine requirements for creativity are cognitive flexibility and motivational persistence. Highly creative people will attack a problem from many different angles, enduring many false starts and dead ends, before they finally complete their quest if they manage to do so at all!'

SMARTPHONES AND CREATIVITY

Imagination is fundamental to human nature. We don't need to exert special effort to unfold our imagination when we allow ourselves to ignore the outside world. Nonetheless, if we are exposed to a constant flood of stimuli, our chances to use our imagination may be seriously diminished. Many modern societies are flooded with noise and stimuli around the clock. For many of us, perhaps the single most significant source of attention-grabbing stimuli is our smartphone. People used to be engaged in internal mentation while taking a rest or in bed before falling asleep. Now, people pick up a smartphone when they have downtime and many even use it in bed before falling asleep. This enhances the activity of brain regions devoted to sensory processing while suppressing the activity of the default mode network.

Smartphone overuse also represses contemplation-related brain activity. When faced with a problem, we combine the available information in various manners and assess the outcomes to find a solution to the problem. With a smartphone, we don't have to go to such an effort; we can simply google the solution.

If continued, smartphone overuse may have long-term consequences on the brain. This can be especially problematic for users with immature brains. Some parts of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, undergo a maturation process until puberty. Inevitably, the long-term consequence of smartphone overuse on the brain could be more pronounced in the young than in adults. Moreover, with an immature prefrontal cortex, which plays a key role in inhibitory control (see chapter 9), it would be extremely difficult for the adolescent to refrain from smartphone overuse. For these reasons, it is important to understand the long-term consequences of smartphone overuse on the young brain.

Study results so far are worrisome. Smartphone overuse in the young is correlated with a diverse array of cognitive, emotional, and personality issues as well as neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Overuse is also associated with weaker central executive network connectivity and a thinner cerebral cortex.

In summary, the consequences of smartphone overuse on the adolescent brain could be serious. We may have to take action to alleviate it as much as we currently try to reduce rates of smoking and drinking in adolescents.