How To Be Creative: Divergent Thinking (Pt. 2)!
Schauer Thoughts
Brain Regions Key to Divergent Thinking
Sarah outlines the prefrontal cortex's gating role, transfer learning, and how prior skills can be repurposed creatively.
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
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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