CREATIVITY SPECIAL ...............The Science of Creativity

The Science of Creativity

Using futuristic imaging technology, a new neurological study conducted by Nimhans, Bangalore, attempts to throw light on how our minds work when we are at our most creative

The study found that creative people were more open to new experiences

IN A sound-proof room in Bangalore’s Indiranagar neighbourhood, a tall, long-haired man sits among sheaves of paper with musical notes on them strewn around a couch, an array of synthesisers and a closed-circuit television: waiting for creativity to strike.

“During a low, dark period of my life, I got an image in my head. I held on to the image and put down some musical notes on the computer. They stayed in a folder on my desktop for a few weeks till I was inspired to work on them. The image finally took the form of Mountain Solitude,” says Ricky Kej about the process of composing a song that found its way into Winds of Samsara, which won the Grammy in the Best New Age Album category in 2015. “As creative beings, most artistes experience moments of self doubt. I don’t let them go waste. I write music about that emotion as a device to move out of the dark phases. In Mountain Solitude, from the time I thought of it to the time I composed it, there was a clear movement from darkness to light. I was at a better time in my life.”
What goes on in the mind of a composer who conjures up a tune out of an emotion? How about a painter who stares at a blank canvas till he sees the contours of his creativity crystallise into a face, figure, colour or motif ? Can a copywriter or a journalist working on a deadline afford the luxury of waiting for the creative moment? Does creativity flow only from the right hemisphere of the brain?
A five-year study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans), Bangalore, completed in 2015, attempts to provide answers to some of these questions by deconstructing creativity. “It is perhaps among the first studies in the world to identify those areas of the brain which are active while performing creative tasks,” says Dr Senthil Kumaran, additional professor, Department of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.
For a long time, neuroscientists followed the Split Brain theory pioneered by Nobel laureate Roger Sperry, which said that the left half of the brain processed information in a rational, analytical manner while the right half was more involved in tasks that needed imagination, intuition and creativity. One important finding of the Nimhans study is that creativity can flow from the left hemisphere of the brain as well.
The study suggests that a network of regions in both hemispheres of the brain works in tandem in the build-up to the Eureka moment. “This is the first study in India that I’ve heard of which indicates that creativity can also flow out of the left brain,” says Dr Shirish Hastak of Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai.
Although newer approaches in the realm of creativity research are always welcome news, leading brain scientist Dr Pravat Mandal of the National Brain Research Centre, Gurgaon, strikes a note of discretion. “This research hasn’t yet been published in a peer reviewed journal. Research findings in a controlled environment can be transient. For validation, it has to be reproducible within a time period of eight to ten months. I would wait for the study’s outcome to be published. But I wish the researchers well.”
THE WAY FORWARD
The academic debate aside, what does the Nimhans study mean for you and me? Having identified the areas of the brain that are active during creative tasks, the study implies that these areas can be stimulated. “Now that we have a clearer picture of the parts of the brain – in both the left and right hemispheres – that are responsible for creativity, we can look at activating them. It can be done either through neuro-feedback training or everyday tasks responsible for stimulating those parts (see sidebar). It could be as simple as learning to play a musical instrument, keeping a diary or carrying out alphabet cancellation exercises designed for children,” says Dr Jamuna Rajeswaran, additional professor, neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience at Nimhans, Bengaluru.
To understand how scientists such as Dr Rajeswaran are doing this, we head to the Nimhans campus on Hosur Road, about eight kilometres west of Kej’s Indiranagar studio, to meet research scholar Divya Sadana. Over the last five years, for her PhD thesis, research scholar Sadana, 28, has been engaged in an interesting project. It probes the brain functions of people when they are assigned creative tasks, using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). It measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. When a brain area is more active, it consumes more oxygen to meet its task and there is increased flow of blood to the area.

For the study, 30 artists, designers, illustrators, musicians and writers from Bangalore’s creative hubs such as National Institute of Design were compared with an equal number of people with similar demography and age but without any proven artistic credentials and another third group of 30 patients suffering from bipolar disorder (see box). “The idea was to see how these three groups react when performing creative tasks inside a brain scan machine. It helped us identify cognitive functions that facilitate creativity,” says Sadana.

GET A BRAIN WAVE

In a laboratory that seems straight out of a science fiction novel, Dr Sadana is busy manipulating the electrodes attached to the scalp of Vinayak Kishore (name changed).

A maze of electrode wires attached to a computer screen runs down from his head. Whenever Kishore concentrates hard on the screen, a dolphin on the screen moves forward and hits the ball. If he doesn’t, the screen goes dark. Kishore is participating in neurofeedback training, a simulative technique administered at Nimhans to those seeking to bring in changes in their emotional makeup and enhance their cognitive functions. “Neuro-feedback uses alpha and theta waves to modify brain activity,” explains Dr Rajeswaran. “It makes the brain receptive to relaxation. Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra got 25 sessions of this training in Germany. The alpha wave ensures that you are relaxed and theta enhances the cognitive function. So, if you are good at music or any other specialised task, the procedure will increase your cognitive abilities as well as enhance creativity,” explains the neuropsychologist.

Even if they didn’t go in for mechanical interventions to bolster creativity, most Indian parents would be better off if they tried to inculcate the creative habit in their children, says Dr Shirish Hastak of Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai. “Global studies have shown that playing the piano can improve the functioning of the areas of the brain that control motor skills, storing audio information and memory.”

MEET THE MAVERICKS

One of the other important findings of the study was to explore the traits that creative people displayed. Were the minds of creative mavericks wired differently? In the study, the creative group [as opposed to the non-creative and bipolar groups] scored higher on cognitive functions such as attention and speed of processing information. They were not worried about finding one correct answer but were happy with multiple realities. Also, they came up with quirky responses to standard questionnaires. “While most people responded with the sun, moon, chapati and tyre to a question on what a circle reminded them of, Shyam Narayan, one of the participants in the study, said it reminded him of an Enso, a Zen icon denoting a circle in Japanese. Upon enquiring, I learnt that an Enso has to be drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create. I was amazed at the breadth of Shyam’s knowledge,” says Dr Sadana. Narayan, 36, who runs a design studio in the Garden City, says he joined the brain study as part of his pursuit to understand how people and things function. “Ever since I was a student at IIT-Mumbai’s Industrial Design Centre, I’ve been curious about human-machine interfaces. Now that I have a design studio which specialises in creating apps and software, it becomes even more important that I understand people’s outlook towards new concepts.”

by Aasheesh Sharma; HTBR26JUL15