Neuroscientists have pinpointed a specific brain region that plays a pivotal role in human creativity, according to the results of a groundbreaking new study.
Published in the journal BRAIN, the new study reveals that the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN) plays an instrumental role in driving one of humanity’s most mysterious and defining characteristics—creativity.
“Our results suggest that DMN activity is flexibly modulated as a function of specific cognitive processes and supports its causal role in divergent thinking,” researchers wrote. “These findings shed light on the neural constructs supporting different forms of cognition and provide causal evidence for the role of DMN in the generation of original connections among concepts.”
Creativity has long been recognized as a hallmark of human intelligence, setting us apart from all other animals. It is the spark that has driven humanity to produce everything from masterpieces like Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet to countless revolutionary technological innovations. However, the precise neural mechanisms underlying creativity have remained elusive despite its importance.
A recent study by researchers from the University of Utah Health and Baylor College of Medicine has provided compelling evidence that the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN) is central to generating creative ideas.
The DMN is a large-scale interconnected network primarily composed of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, and angular gyrus regions of the brain. It is most known for being active when the conscious mind is at rest, such as during daydreaming or mindfulness meditation.
Previous research has shown that the DMN becomes deactivated during goal-oriented tasks, such as those requiring visual attention or working memory. These findings have led cognitive scientists to conclude that the network is crucial for the brain’s ability to generate thoughts independent of the immediate external environment, making it essential for imagination, creativity, and the ability to draw connections between seemingly unrelated ideas.
To better understand the mystery of how the brain generates creative ideas, researchers examined 13 study participants receiving treatment for epilepsy at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center that had Stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG) electrodes surgically implanted in their brains for seizure mapping.
By using participants with intracranial electrodes, researchers could record brain activity with exceptional temporal and spatial precision as they engaged in tasks designed to stimulate creative thinking.
These tasks included generating novel uses for everyday objects, a well-known test of creativity often called the “alternate uses task.” Participants were also asked to engage in a “mind-wandering task,” which involved focusing on neutral visual stimuli and allowing their thoughts to roam freely. Finally, participants were given a third “sustained attention task” as a control measure.
By comparing brain activity during these tasks, the researchers discovered that the DMN and brain regions, typically associated with introspection and daydreaming, were highly active during creative functions.
In addition to mapping the brain regions involved in creativity, the researchers also examined the specific types of brain waves that were most active during creative tasks. Specifically, they focused on two types of brain waves: theta and gamma.
Previous research has linked theta waves to long-range communication between brain regions and states of relaxation and meditation. Meanwhile, Gamma waves are often associated with local neural activity and are believed to be involved in moments of insight or the formation of unified perception.
Researchers found that during the creative tasks, there was a notable increase in gamma wave activity in the DMN, suggesting that this brain region is not only active during creative thinking but may also orchestrate and integrate different types of information necessary for creative insights.
Meanwhile, theta wave activity was also heightened, particularly in the moments leading up to the generation of a creative idea, indicating that a relaxed, open mental state might be a precursor to creativity.
These results suggest that the interplay between theta and gamma oscillations in the DMN is crucial for generating creative ideas. This aligns with the notion that creativity involves a free flow of ideas, facilitated by a relaxed mental state, and the ability to synthesize these ideas into something new and useful, driven by more focused, integrative processes.
To confirm the DMN’s role in creativity, researchers used electrical stimulation to temporarily disrupt activity in specific network regions. This approach allowed them to observe how reducing DMN activity affected participants’ creative thinking.
The findings showed that participants’ ability to generate creative ideas was significantly impaired when DMN activity was disrupted during “alternate uses tasks.” However, intriguingly, disruptions to the neural network did not affect performance in mind-wandering tasks.
“Our results indicate that the thought processes occurring during daydreaming and mind wandering are more resilient to external perturbation of the system,” researchers wrote. “It is possible that changes in the train of thoughts might be more difficult to detect given their “unconstrained” fluctuating nature, also in line with the subjective experience of a constant and coherent internal narrative.”
The implications of this recent research are profound. Understanding the neural basis of creativity could lead to new ways of enhancing creativity in individuals, whether through educational techniques, cognitive training, or even brain stimulation technologies.
Moreover, this knowledge could inform the development of artificial intelligence systems that better mimic human creativity, potentially leading to more innovative and adaptable AI.
However, researchers caution that creativity is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon, and this latest research only focused on specific regions within the DMN. Previous studies have shown that creativity and divergent thinking can involve additional cognitive control networks.
“To better quantify the relationship between these various networks, future studies focused on measures of network synchrony, such as cross-frequency coupling and phase synchronization, will be necessary,” researchers wrote.
In the broader context, this understanding reinforces the idea that creativity is a defining feature of the human experience, rooted in the unique architecture of our brains.
Moreover, these findings challenge previous notions that the DMN plays a passive role in supporting mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts. Instead, the neural network is actively engaged in generating creativity and the imaginative thought process.
Ultimately, in a world where innovation is increasingly critical, this new understanding of how creativity arises in the brain could prove invaluable, offering new avenues for fostering creativity in individuals and societies.
Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan. Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com