Defining Creativity: Novelty, Usefulness, Surprise

Prepare to get meta, I’m going to walk you through my creative, divergent thinking process while explaining the neuroscience of creativity and divergent thinking! We do need our brains and bodies to be in sync for this to be meaningful, illuminating, give you (and I) an “aha!” moment.

Please note, divergent thinking means you think in a way that is not typical or standard, so I apologize if I’m hard to follow, however it is necessary to illustrate the point I’m making. I want you to know that you don’t have to understand every single detail, however you should focus on the actual “route” my mind is taking - the “figure 8.”

Thank you so much to The Allen Institute for inviting me to Neuroscience 2025 in San Diego, I am beyond grateful and appreciative for the experience. I encourage everyone to check out their website, as well as their mission, because science (and creativity) truly are for everyone.

The Allen Institute: https://alleninstitute.org/ 

New Book Club Information:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-book-for-143088045 

Resources:

This Is What It Sounds Like - Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas 

Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us - Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross

Horror in Architecture: The Reanimated Edition - Joshua Comaroff + One Ker-Shing

Future Tense: Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad) - Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, PhD

• This is the book I recommended on arousal state splitting off into excitement or anxiety.

A neurocomputational model of creative process

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763422001452

Functional Fixedness: When We Stick to What We Know

https://nesslabs.com/functional-fixedness

• This is not the Time Magazine article but it also covers functional fixedness and how it impacts creativity

Sensorimotor experience and verb-category mapping in human sensory, motor and parietal neurons

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010945217301491

Mental time travel, language, and evolution

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0028393219302441

Isometric Handgrip Exercise Speeds Working Memory Responses in Younger and Older Adults

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10238670/

• This article does include hand exercises for younger adults, most however are focused on improving working memory for older populations

Analogy: Definition, Examples, and Usage

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/literary-devices/analogy/

Learning from the Double Diamond: How Divergent and Convergent Thinking Can Improve Collaboration and Problem-Solving in Museums

https://www.aam-us.org/2024/04/05/learning-from-the-double-diamond-how-divergent-and-convergent-thinking-can-improve-collaboration-and-problem-solving-in-museums/

On the emergence of interdisciplinary scientific fields: (how) does it relate to science convergence?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733324000751

A Global Map of Science Based on the ISI Subject Categories

https://www.leydesdorff.net/map06/texts/index.htm

The Brain Science of Elusive ‘Aha! Moments’

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-elusive-brain-science-of-aha-moments/

Recommended Books:

The Geometry of Grief - Michael Frame

The Tao of Physics - Fritjof Capra 

The Gentrification of the Mind - Sarah Schulman 

On the Art and Craft of Doing Science - Kenneth Catania 

The Meaning of Proofs: Mathematics as Storytelling - Gabriele Lolli

The Botany of Desire - Michael Pollan 

The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know - Shawn Coyne 

When Narcissism Comes to Church - Chuck DeGroat

Humour - Terry Eagleton

The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone - Philip Fernbach & Steven A. Sloman

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