Which hemisphere of the brain is responsible for creativity and which for logic?

“The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for logical thinking, and the right hemisphere is responsible for creative thinking” - this “saying”, like many others like it, is very common not only among ordinary people, but also among specialists - even in books devoted to correct thinking , self-development and some other similar topics you can find a lot of them. But what is most interesting, surprising and strange is that these myths, one can put it bluntly, relate very, very little to the true state of affairs.

The myth that the cerebral hemispheres are functionally asymmetrical is one of the most popular myths regarding the brain that can be found today. Along with the myth that a person uses only 10% of his brain, he is, perhaps, a leader.

Despite this, even seemingly professional specialists with serious scientific knowledge and all kinds of degrees and titles often claim that this myth is the purest truth, and “stuff” it into the minds of ignorant people. The good news is that the myth about functional asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres has been dispelled for quite some time. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Description

Interhemispheric asymmetry of mental processes refers to the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres: when performing some mental functions, the left hemisphere is dominant, while others are the right hemisphere.

Functional asymmetry is one of the most important psychophysiological patterns in the activity of the human brain. According to the researchers, asymmetry is associated with optimization of the decision-making process. The right and left hemispheres operate at different frequencies. Twice a day, at the moment of falling asleep and waking up, the frequency is synchronized. At this moment, a person has incomparably greater capabilities.

Nerve pathways from the sense organs go to each of the hemispheres of the brain. The right hemisphere primarily “serves” the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere primarily “serves” the right. Thus, left-handedness, a dominant left eye or left ear may indicate a predominant role of the right hemisphere in the perception and analysis of information.

It is currently believed that the left hemisphere in right-handed people plays a predominant role in expressive and impressive speech, reading, writing, verbal memory and verbal thinking. The right hemisphere acts as the leading hemisphere for non-speech, for example, musical hearing, visual-spatial orientation, non-verbal memory, and criticality.

The mechanisms of abstract imaginative thinking are concentrated in the left hemisphere, and the mechanisms of concrete figurative thinking are concentrated in the right hemisphere, therefore those people in whom emotional-imaginative thinking predominates are called “right-hemisphere”, and those in whom rational-logical thinking predominates are called “left-hemisphere”.

A curious detail noticed by scientists is the ability of asymmetry to change with age. It has been experimentally proven that the dominant hemisphere works more economically and ages more slowly. It should be remembered that the dominance of the right hemisphere will sooner or later manifest itself. For many people who grew up in a left-hemisphere rational world, creativity manifests itself only in the second half of life. Someone suddenly starts cross-stitching at the age of forty, someone paints pictures in secret from everyone.

Which half of the brain is dominant?

Since the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for logic and a rational approach in everything, it was previously believed that it was leading in the entire central system. However, this is not so: in humans, both hemispheres of the brain participate in life activities almost equally, they are simply responsible for different areas of higher mental activity.

It is noteworthy that in childhood, in most people, the right hemisphere is usually larger than the left. For this reason, the world around them is perceived somewhat differently than in adulthood - children are prone to fantasies and perception of non-verbal information, everything seems interesting and mysterious to them. Also, by fantasizing, they learn to communicate with the environment: they play out different situations from life in their minds and draw their own conclusions, that is, they gain experience, which is so necessary in adulthood. Subsequently, this information is stored mostly in the left hemisphere.

However, over time, when the basic aspects of life are learned, the activity of the right hemisphere fades away and the body gives preference to the left side of the brain as the storehouse of acquired knowledge. Such disunity in the functioning of parts of the brain negatively affects a person’s quality of life: he becomes unresponsive to everything new and remains conservative in his views on the future.

Which part of the brain is working at the moment can be determined by doing a basic test.

Look at the moving image:

If it rotates clockwise, this means that the left hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for logic and analysis, is currently active. If it moves in the opposite direction, this means that the right hemisphere, which is responsible for emotions and intuitive perception of information, is working.

However, if you make an effort, the picture can be made to rotate in any direction: to do this, you first need to look at it with a defocused gaze. Do you see the changes?

Features of the hemispheres

The symmetrical sections of the hemispheres provide movement and specific sensitivity equally. However, such averaging does not apply to higher cortical functions, emotions, activation and adaptation processes.

Neurophysiologists classify interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain into:

• anatomical (expressed in the morphological heterogeneity of the hemispheres);
• biochemical (manifested by differences in cellular reactions, content of neurotransmitters);
• psychophysiological (motor, sensory, cognitive-emotional).

Left

The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for verbal information; it is responsible for a person’s language abilities, controls speech, the ability to write and read. Thanks to the work of the left hemisphere, a person is able to remember various facts, events, dates, names, their sequence and how they will look in writing.

The left hemisphere is responsible for human analytical thinking; thanks to this hemisphere, logic and analysis of facts are developed, and manipulations with numbers and mathematical formulas are carried out.

The left hemisphere of the brain dominates in the following areas:

• coordination of movements of the right side of the body;
• control of speech, reading, writing, recognition and understanding of mathematical symbols, as well as remembering names and dates;
• logical analysis of facts received from outside;
• only a literal understanding of concepts;
• stages in the processing of any information received;
• all mathematical manipulations;
• orientation in time and feeling of one's own body;
• the concept of one’s own “I” and its isolation from the environment;
• predominance of introversion in character;
• logical, symbolic and sequential thinking.

In case of any damage to the left hemisphere of the brain, disturbances, disappearances or deformations of its function are noted. The following pathological conditions may occur:

• impaired ability to generalize received data;
• impairment of the ability to build logical chains;
• various lesions of the speech apparatus (misunderstanding of speech, loss of the ability to speak, and others);
• damage to the written analyzer (failure to understand what is written when perceiving oral speech or the inability to write with normal speech);
• combined lesions of speech and writing;
• violation of time orientation;
• impaired ability to arrange in the correct sequence the tasks that need to be completed to achieve a goal;
• inability to draw conclusions from available facts.

A child with a left-hemisphere dominant often learns to read on his own, because he has memorized the symbols mechanically, but the letters are unlikely to include images in his mind: this can lead to indifference to reading.

Interesting to know! It is also difficult for these children to play games on their own, inventing imaginary events and actions.

Right

The right hemisphere of the brain specializes in processing so-called nonverbal information, which is expressed not in words, but in symbols and images.

Important! It is responsible for imagination; with its help, a person is able to fantasize, dream, and compose. This is also where a person’s abilities for initiative and art are located.

The right hemisphere is responsible for parallel processing of information, that is, like a computer, it allows a person to simultaneously analyze several different streams of information, make decisions and solve problems, simultaneously considering the problem as a whole and from different angles.

Thanks to the right hemisphere of the brain, we make intuitive connections between images, understand a variety of metaphors, and perceive humor. The right hemisphere allows a person to recognize complex images that cannot be broken down into elementary components, for example, the process of recognizing people's faces and the emotions that these faces display.

Therefore, we can identify a certain “area of ​​responsibility” of the right hemisphere:

• reading information from images, symbols;
• representation of images under the influence of music;
• orientation in space;
• collecting puzzles and mosaics;
• perception of musical works;
• understanding the figurative meaning of words and expressions;
• the ability to dream, compose;
• expression of sexuality;
• a penchant for mysticism, religious consciousness;
• control of the left side of the body.

It follows from this that although the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for logic, speech, event planning and the ability to perform exact sciences, their holistic perception will be impossible without the right half of the brain.

Relationship

The work of both hemispheres of the brain is equally important for a person. With the help of the left hemisphere, the world is simplified and analyzed, and thanks to the right hemisphere, it is perceived as it really is. The intuitive work of the right hemisphere of the brain is based on facts that have been analyzed by the left hemisphere.

Important! If there were no right, “creative” hemisphere of the brain, people would turn into emotionless, calculating machines that could only adapt the world to their life.

It should be noted that the right hemisphere controls the left half of the human body, and the left hemisphere controls the right half of the body. That is why it is believed that a person whose left half of the body is better developed (“left-handed”) has better developed creative abilities. By training the corresponding part of the body, we train the hemisphere of the brain that is responsible for these actions.

In the majority of people, one hemisphere is dominant: the right or the left. When a child is born, he evenly uses the capabilities that were initially inherent in him in different hemispheres.

Interesting to know! However, in the process of development, growth and learning, one of the hemispheres begins to develop more actively.

In addition, the peculiarities of the distribution of functions in the hemispheres and their interaction give a different clinical picture when pathological conditions occur. This is the basis for diagnosing a number of neurological diseases. At the same time, it is impossible to consider interhemispheric asymmetry as the work of isolated structures.

Important! Only the unity of both hemispheres and their coordinated work guarantee the full functioning of the body.

How is the surface of the cerebral hemispheres formed?

Basic aspects of the physiology of the cerebral hemispheres, or hemispheres as they are also called, using the example of brain development in a child from the moment of conception.

The central nervous system begins to develop almost immediately after fertilization of the egg and already at 4 weeks after implantation of the embryo into the uterine mucosa, it consists of 3 brain vesicles connected in series. The first of them is the rudiment of the anterior part of the brain and, therefore, its cerebral hemispheres, the second is the midbrain, and the last, third forms the rhomboid part of the brain.

In parallel with this process, the birth of the cerebral cortex occurs - at first it looks like a small long plate of gray matter, consisting mainly of a cluster of neuron bodies.

Next, the physiological maturation of the main parts of the brain occurs: by the 9th week of pregnancy, the anterior part increases and forms 2 cerebral hemispheres, connected to each other by a special structure - the corpus callosum. Just like the smaller nerve commissures (superior and posterior commissure, fornix of the brain), it consists of a large bundle of nerve cell processes - axons, located mainly in the transverse direction. This structure subsequently allows information to be instantly transferred from one part of the brain to another.

The rudiment of the cortex, covering the white matter of the hemispheres, also undergoes changes at this time: there is a gradual build-up of layers and an increase in the coverage area. In this case, the upper cortical layer increases faster than the lower one, due to which folds and grooves appear.

By the age of 6 months of the embryo, for example, the left hemisphere of the brain has all the main primary gyri: lateral, central, callosal, parieto-occipital and calcarine, while the pattern of their location is mirrored in the right hemisphere. Then the convolutions of the second row are formed, and at the same time the number of layers of the cerebral cortex increases.

By the time of birth, the final section and, accordingly, the large hemispheres of the human brain have a familiar appearance to everyone, and the cortex has all 6 layers. The growth of the number of neurons stops. The subsequent increase in the weight of the medulla is the result of the growth of existing nerve cells and the development of glial tissue.

As the child develops, neurons form an even larger branched network of interneuronal connections. For most people, brain development ends by age 18.

The adult cerebral cortex, covering the entire surface of the cerebral hemispheres, consists of several functional layers:

1. molecular;
2. external granular;
3. pyramidal;
4. internal granular;
5. ganglionic;
6. multimorphic;
7. white matter.

The neurons of these structures have different structures and functional purposes, but they form the gray matter of the brain, which is an integral part of the cerebral hemispheres. Also, with the help of these functional units, the cerebral cortex carries out all the main manifestations of human higher nervous activity - thinking, remembering, emotional state, speech and attention.

The thickness of the cortex is not uniform throughout; for example, it reaches its greatest value in the upper parts of the precentral and postcentral gyri. At the same time, the pattern of the location of the convolutions is strictly individual - there are no two people on earth with the same brains.

Anatomically, the surface of the cerebral hemispheres is divided into several parts or lobes, limited by the most significant convolutions:

1. Frontal lobe. At the back it is limited by the central groove, at the bottom - by the lateral groove. In the direction forward from the central sulcus and parallel to it, the superior and inferior precentral sulci lie. Between them and the central sulcus is the anterior central gyrus. From both precentral sulci the superior and inferior frontal sulci extend at right angles, bounding the three frontal gyri - the superior middle and inferior.
2. Parietal lobe. This lobe is bounded anteriorly by the central sulcus, inferiorly by the lateral sulcus, and posteriorly by the parieto-occipital and transverse occipital sulci. Parallel to and anterior to the central sulcus is the postcentral sulcus, which divides into the superior and inferior sulci. Between it and the central sulcus is the posterior central gyrus.
3. Occipital lobe. The grooves and convolutions on the outer surface of the occipital lobe can change their direction. The most constant of them is the superior occipital gyrus. At the border of the parietal lobe and the occipital lobe there are several transitional gyri. The first surrounds the lower end, which extends onto the outer surface of the hemisphere of the parieto-occipital sulcus. In the posterior part of the occipital lobe there are one or two polar grooves, which have a vertical direction and limit the descending occipital gyrus at the occipital pole.
4. Temporal lobe. This part of the hemisphere is bounded in front by the lateral sulcus, and in the posterior section by a line connecting the posterior end of the lateral sulcus with the lower end of the transverse occipital sulcus. On the outer surface of the temporal lobe there are the superior, middle and inferior temporal sulci. The surface of the superior temporal gyrus forms the lower wall of the lateral sulcus and is divided into two parts: the opercular, covered by the parietal operculum, and the anterior insular.
5. Island. Located in the depths of the lateral sulcus.

Thus, it turns out that the cerebral cortex, which covers the entire surface of the cerebral hemispheres, is the main element of the central nervous system, which allows you to process and reproduce information received from the environment through the senses: vision, touch, smell, hearing and taste. It also participates in the formation of cortical reflexes, purposeful actions and participates in the formation of human behavioral characteristics.

Short test

It is very easy to determine which of them is dominant at the moment; you need to conduct a simple test that will show the most active side of consciousness. You need to pay attention to the location:

• thumb when intertwining the fingers of both hands together into a kind of fist;
• palms during voluntary clapping;
• forearms when crossing arms over chest;
• legs thrown over one another while sitting.

If the activity of the right side of the body predominates, it means that the left hemisphere is more developed, since it is it that controls it. If it’s the other way around, it means that the person is prone to emotional and illogical behavior and has creative abilities, but he needs to pay more attention to the development of his mind and analytical skills.

Another way to determine the dominant hemisphere is presented in the video below.

You yourself know how to develop your right hemisphere!

The three basic exercises are just a simple example. If you want, you can easily find a lot of things that can develop both one and the other hemisphere of the brain. This is facilitated by communication with people and the desire to sympathize and experience them, listening to classical music (especially live performance). Pay more attention to what is happening around you and be aware of what is happening without resorting to constant analysis. It really won’t be a bad idea to do this, because the acquired skills will be useful in any business and any industry.

Development methods

Music lessons will be very useful for anyone, especially piano, accordion, and accordion. The motor activity of the hands and fingers is directly related to the functioning of the brain. When both hands are used at the same time, two hemispheres develop harmoniously at once, getting used to cooperating.

In addition, they are extremely useful for the development of logic, intelligence and memory, as well as imaginative thinking:

• chess and checkers;
• poker, backgammon;
• Monopoly and Scrabble games;
• puzzles and puzzles;
• embroidery and knitting.

Left hemisphere

Since it is known that the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, it can be activated in two ways: by loading it with the work it is oriented to, and by maximizing the use of the side of the body that it controls.

1. Logical tasks You will find a large number of them on the Internet, both individually and collected into games and applications. Play, solving both yourself and getting together with the whole family.
2. Exercise To activate the left hemisphere, you need to use the right side of the body. For example, perform normal actions with your right hand (write, brush your teeth, stir tea). For right-handed people this will not be difficult, but for left-handed people it will be more difficult. Also, when performing regular gymnastics, pay more attention to the right side of the body. For example, you can jump on your right leg and bend to the right side.
3. Self-massage There are many points on the human body that are responsible for different organs, including the brain. At the base of the big toes there is a point responsible for the cerebellum, and below it are the points of the cerebral hemispheres. By massaging the point under the big toe of your right foot, you activate the left hemisphere.
4. Fine motor skills of the hands Fine motor skills of the hands are very useful for the development of the hemispheres. There is a special exercise for this. Place the tip of the little finger of your right hand against the tip of the thumb of your left hand, and the little finger of your left hand against the thumb of your right. Rotate your hands so that the position of your fingers changes places. Then the same should be done with the ring and index fingers.

Right hemisphere

Any creative activity is suitable for developing the right half of the brain - composing music, drawing, writing stories. There are also special exercises that will increase the potential of the right side and make it work at full strength.

1. Visualization Close your eyes and imagine a blank white sheet of paper. Now try to see your name on it in your favorite color. Then make the name change color several times. The brighter the picture, the better. You can also use not a “fictional” sheet of paper, but use applications with exercises to train the right part of the brain. Try to name the colors in which the words are written as quickly as possible.
2. Motor exercises Some are known to us from childhood, for example, “ear-nose”. With your left hand, grab the tip of your nose, and with your right hand, grab your left ear. Then clap your hands and change hands - now the right one should hold the nose, and the left one should hold the right ear. Anyone who played this game as a child remembers that it worked out much better then. This is due to the fact that in childhood the right hemisphere is more developed (hence the love of drawing and all kinds of creativity in children).
3. Tactile Senses Another effective way to develop the right hemisphere is through the use of tactile senses. You can imagine absolutely any images during the exercise. For example, try to feel that you are eating a certain dish, what it tastes like, what you associate with it. To develop creative skills, the same can be done with smell or in any way.
4. Finger work Such gymnastics will help develop creative thinking. Try clenching both palms into fists at the same time. After this, straighten the thumb on your right hand and the index finger on your left. Then straighten the index finger on your right hand and the thumb on your left hand. Repeat this exercise several times, speeding up the pace. Alternate and throw other fingers.
5. Infinity sign This exercise also helps to effectively develop the right hemisphere and improve creative skills. To do this, you need to press your left ear to your shoulder and extend your left arm forward. Then all attention should be concentrated on the index finger. Draw a figure eight with your hand, starting from the center - up and from the center - to the left. Perform the exercise with your left hand 8 times, and then do the same for your right hand.

In addition, we can highlight a number of recommendations that also have a good effect on the development of creative potential.

1. Right-handed people should sometimes use their left hand for writing or daily tasks. It will be difficult at first, but over time the illegible scribbles will turn into elegant handwriting, and new and fresh ideas will appear in the right hemisphere.
2. Meditation and visualization are useful not only for mental comfort and activation of the subconscious. It is also a training of imagination and intuition. Even if a person is far from esoteric, it would be useful to imagine the taste of a favorite dish in the mouth or remember the smells of a forest clearing or a perfume that you like, activating your figurative memory. You can simply try to imagine any object with your eyes closed, clearly and in color.
3. Constant training of intuition also expands the functions of the PP. You can ask a friend or relative to make a wish for an inanimate object, for example, one of those in the room. Concentrate and try to guess with your inner vision what it could be. When you hear the phone ringing, try to imagine who is calling before answering.
4. Drawing pictures, even if you don’t have any special artistic abilities, is a great way to refresh your mind and increase creativity, which even a financial analyst will benefit from. This helps remove excess control. At first, it can be scary to make the first smear, since there is no clear plan of action, which is what people with strong LP are used to, but your imagination will definitely awaken.
5. Keeping a diary, writing poems, stories and fairy tales in the evenings for children is not just entertainment, but also very useful activities.

Mysteries and contradictions of the creative brain

Nadezhda Vyacheslavovna Markina, Candidate of Biological Sciences

“Chemistry and Life” No. 11, 2008

What happens in the brain of an artist who creates a brilliant painting? Or a poet who writes immortal lines that will touch people's hearts a century later? No matter how mysterious and incomprehensible the gift of God that overshadows a genius may be, he guides his hand through the activity of the brain. There is no other option. But creativity to one degree or another is inherent in every person. A child composes fables, a schoolchild works on an essay, a student completes his first independent research - all these are creative processes. Today, creativity is welcomed, and sometimes required, in any job - this word, borrowed from English, is increasingly used to denote creative abilities.

When defining creativity, different experts ultimately come to the same conclusion. Creativity is understood as the ability to generate something new, for example, unusual ideas, to deviate in thinking from stereotypes and traditional patterns, and to quickly resolve problem situations. Of course, the ability to create, or creativity, is a useful quality for a person, since it is what allows him to adapt to the world around him.

The first person to undertake an objective study of the phenomenon of creativity was the American psychologist John Guilford. At the end of the 50s of the last century, he formulated several criteria for creativity that can be assessed in psychological tests. The main criteria are: fluency - the ease of generating ideas, flexibility - the ease of forming associations between distant concepts, and originality - the ability to move away from stereotypes. Thanks to the work of Guilford and then Torrens, it became possible to measure creativity quantitatively and statistically. American psychologist E. Torrance is the author of the most widely used test for determining creativity.

It is believed that the basis of creativity is divergent thinking, that is, thinking that diverges along many paths. Divergent thinking occurs when one problem is solved in different ways, each of which can be correct. Apparently, it is the multiplicity of solution options that creates the opportunity to find original ideas.

Rex E. Jung, an assistant professor in the department of neurology, psychology and neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico, emphasizes the main feature of creative thinking: the solution comes in the form of “insight” (the English word “insight” is already widely used without translation). Eureka! yeah! - these words convey the state that occurs when a sudden guess appears in the brain like a flash.

The task of studying the brain organization and brain mechanisms of the creative process seems elusive. The possibility of “verifying harmony with algebra” and, in general, the ability of the brain to know itself are doubtful. But scientists are trying to approach this difficult task. It turned out that even for studying such subtle matter there are objective psychophysiological methods.

How creativity is studied

One of the first, and until recently, the main method of studying brain activity, was electroencephalography - recording the electrical activity of the brain through electrodes placed on the scalp. Rhythmic fluctuations of electrical potentials in order of increasing frequency are divided into several ranges: delta (0.5–3.5 Hz), theta (4–7.5 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (13.5–30 Hz) and gamma (above 30 Hz). An electroencephalogram (EEG) is the total electrical activity of millions of neurons, each of which discharges to do its job. That is, figuratively speaking, this is the noise from millions of operating electric generators. But depending on the functional state, this noise may vary. Important indicators of EEG are powers in different frequency ranges, or, what is the same, local synchronization. This means that at a given point in the brain, neural ensembles begin to discharge synchronously. Spatial synchronization, or coherence, in a particular rhythm shows the degree of connectivity and coordination of neural ensembles of different parts of the cortex of one or different hemispheres. Coherence can be intrahemispheric and interhemispheric. The outstanding neurophysiologist A. M. Ivanitsky called the areas of greatest spatial synchronization the foci of maximum interaction. They indicate which areas of the brain are most involved in performing certain activities.

Then other methods appeared that made it possible to assess the functioning of various areas of the brain based on changes in local cerebral blood flow. The more active the brain neurons are, the more energy resources they require—primarily glucose and oxygen. Therefore, an increase in blood flow allows us to judge the increase in the activity of some areas of the brain during a particular activity.

resonance imaging (fMRI)

), which is based on the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance, it is possible to study the degree of blood oxygenation in a specific area of ​​the brain. The scanner measures the electromagnetic response of the nuclei of hydrogen atoms to excitation in a high-intensity constant magnetic field. As blood flows through the brain, it gives oxygen to nerve cells.

Since hemoglobin bound and not bound with oxygen behaves differently in a magnetic field, one can judge how intensely the blood delivers oxygen to neurons in different parts of the brain. Today, it is with the help of fMRI that most studies related to the organization of higher brain functions are carried out in the world.

Local cerebral blood flow is also studied using positron emission tomography (PET). Using PET, gamma quanta are recorded that arise from the annihilation of positrons formed during the positron beta decay of a short-lived radioisotope. Before the study, water labeled with a radioactive oxygen isotope 0–15 is injected into the patient’s blood. A PET scanner tracks the movement of an oxygen isotope in the blood through the brain and thus estimates the speed of local cerebral blood flow during a particular activity.

The creative process is an energy-consuming phenomenon, and based on this, we can expect that it is accompanied by activation of the cerebral cortex, especially its frontal lobes, associated with integrative processes (that is, with the collection and processing of information). But already the results of the first electrophysiological studies turned out to be contradictory: some saw an increase in the activity of the frontal lobes of the cortex during solving a creative task, others saw a decrease. The same applies to assessing cerebral blood flow. Some researchers demonstrated the involvement of the frontal lobes of both hemispheres in the process of performing a fluency task, while in other studies the opposite was true: only one was activated.

But the complexity of the problem does not mean that it cannot be approached. At the end of the 90s, at the Institute of the Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences, under the leadership of N.P. Bekhtereva, work began on studying the brain organization of creativity. They were distinguished by their careful experimental design. To date, Natalya Petrovna’s students and colleagues have obtained statistically reliable and, most importantly, reproducible data.

At the IV World Congress on Psychophysiology recently held in St. Petersburg, an entire symposium was devoted to the brain mechanisms of creativity. Scientists from different countries presented different methodological approaches and varied results.

Alpha rhythm - peace or creativity?

Electrophysiologists do not have a clear idea of ​​which EEG rhythms are primarily associated with creative activity, for example, how the basic rhythm of the human brain, the alpha rhythm (8–13 Hz), changes. It dominates in the human cerebral cortex in a state of rest with eyes closed and is characteristic of this particular state. Any external stimuli lead to desynchronization - suppression of the alpha rhythm. It would seem that the creative efforts of the brain should act on it in the same way. But Andreas Fink (Institute of Psychology at the University of Graz, France) presented the results of measuring alpha rhythm indicators when subjects solved a creative problem. The task was to invent an unusual use for ordinary objects, and the control task consisted of a simple characterization of the properties of objects. The researcher notes that more original, compared to less original, ideas were accompanied by an increase in the alpha rhythm in the frontal areas of the cerebral cortex. At the same time, in the occipital areas of the cortex, the alpha rhythm, on the contrary, weakened. Coming up with an alternative use for an object causes significantly greater changes in the alpha rhythm than characterizing its properties.

The scientist offers an explanation for why the alpha rhythm increases when solving a creative problem. Its strengthening means that the brain switches off from normal external stimuli coming from the environment and its own body, and focuses on internal processes. This state is favorable for the emergence of associations, development of imagination, and generation of ideas. And desynchronization of the alpha rhythm in the occipital areas may reflect the retrieval from memory of visual images needed to solve a problem. In general, an attempt to accurately localize “creativity zones” led the scientist to the conclusion that creativity is not tied to certain parts of the brain. Rather, it is accompanied by the coordination and interaction of the anterior and posterior cortical regions.

Changes in the alpha rhythm when solving creative problems were also assessed in the work of O. M. Razumnikova (Institute of Physiology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Novosibirsk). It turned out that a more successful solution corresponds to an increase in the initial power of the alpha rhythm, reflecting the preparation of the brain for work. When performing a creative task, on the contrary, desynchronization of the alpha rhythm occurs - its structure is disrupted and replaced by faster activity.

In the experiments of M. G. Starchenko and S. G. Danko in the laboratory of the Institute of Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the direction of N. P. Bekhtereva, the subjects performed a creative task and a control task, which consisted of a similar activity, but without creative elements. In the most difficult creative task, scientists asked subjects to come up with a story from a set of words, and from different semantic fields that were not related to each other in meaning. For example, from the words: begin, glass, want, roof, mountain, be silent, book, leave, sea, night, open, cow, throw, notice, disappear, mushroom. The control task was to come up with a story from words of one semantic field, for example: school, understand, task, study, lesson, answer, receive, write, assessment, ask, class, answer, question, solve, teacher, listen. The third task was to reconstruct a coherent text from ready-made words. The fourth is in memorizing and naming words starting with one letter from the presented set of words. Without going into details, we can say that the creative task, unlike the control task, caused an activation reaction - desynchronization of the alpha rhythm.

a

.
More creative subjects ( top
) have higher alpha power in the right occipital region than less creative subjects (
bottom
).
b
.
The creative task - coming up with alternative uses for objects ( top
) is accompanied by greater alpha rhythm power than the control task - describing the properties of objects (
bottom
). The scale displays the amount of alpha rhythm power. Image: Chemistry and Life

In other experiments in the same laboratory, nonverbal, figurative creativity was examined in the following tests. Volunteers received two creative tasks: draw any picture using a given set of geometric shapes (circle, semicircle, triangle and rectangle) or draw given objects in an original way (face, house, clown). In the control tasks, you had to draw your own picture from memory and simply draw geometric figures. The results obtained by Zh.V. Nagornova indicate that an imaginative creative task, compared to a non-creative one, reduced the power of the alpha rhythm in the temporal zones. And according to data presented by Doctor of Biological Sciences O. M. Bazanova (Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Novosibirsk), creative thinking is accompanied by an increase in the power of the alpha rhythm and synchronization in the alpha 1 range (8–10 Hz) in the right hemisphere . She examined whether individual alpha scores could be used as a measure of nonverbal creativity in the Torrance Complete Drawing Test. It turned out that individual average alpha frequency was associated with fluency, variations in alpha rhythm amplitude were associated with flexibility, and individual frequency was associated with originality in the opposite way in the group of high- and low-frequency subjects. Therefore, the author concludes, these two groups use different strategies when solving a nonverbal creativity task.

Is a fast brain a creative brain?

The largest number of results indicate a connection with creative activity by fast electrical activity of the cerebral cortex. This refers to the beta rhythm, especially the beta 2 rhythm (18–30 Hz) and the gamma rhythm (more than 30 Hz). N.V. Shemyakina worked with a test for verbal creativity - subjects came up with endings for well-known proverbs and sayings. And in her experiments, the creative task was accompanied by a change in the power of the high-frequency gamma rhythm. The figurative creativity task, according to Zh.V. Nagornova, increased the power of beta-2 and gamma activity in the temporal lobes.

Similar results were obtained in the experiments of S. G. Danko, candidate of technical sciences. He showed that creative thinking is not always associated with complexity of thinking. The creative task was to come up with your own ending to a well-known proverb (for example, “Better late than ...”) so that its meaning would completely change. In the control task, it was necessary to remember the existing ending. A complicated control task was also given, in which the text of the proverb was written in the form of anagrams (words with rearranged letters). The results of EEG recordings confirmed the hypothesis that creativity and task complexity manifest themselves differently. An indicator of creative thinking—an increase in the power of the gamma rhythm—was observed when a creative element appeared in the task, but was not observed when the task became more complex.

No neighbor's help needed

The extent to which areas of the brain distant from each other can be involved in joint creative activity can be judged by analyzing the spatial synchronization of neural ensembles in a range of different rhythms.

In the experiments of M. G. Starchenko in a creative task - composing a story from words of different semantic fields - spatial synchronization in the anterior areas of the cortex increased within each hemisphere and between the hemispheres. But the synchronization of the front areas with the back ones, on the contrary, was weakened.

Test for nonverbal creativity. Image: Chemistry and Life

In the task of nonverbal creativity (experiments by Zh.V. Nagornova), spatial synchronization in the creative task changed across all EEG rhythms. In the slow and medium ranges, intrahemispheric and interhemispheric synchronization increased. Perhaps this reflects the functional state of the brain against which creative work occurs. The interaction of the frontal and occipital regions in the slow delta rhythm, the researchers say, may reflect the process of retrieving figurative visual information from memory. To the greatest extent, figurative memory was involved in creating one’s own picture. And increased spatial synchronization in the theta rhythm range may be associated with emotional reactions during the performance of creative tasks. In fast beta and gamma rhythms, intrahemispheric synchronization is enhanced, and interhemispheric synchronization is weakened. This may indicate less interconnected work of the hemispheres in the process of nonverbal creativity, more independent processing of figurative information. Perhaps, experts say, interhemispheric synchronization in the frontal lobes decreases when searching for distant figurative associations and creating an idea for a drawing. It is possible that the frontal lobes may have an inhibitory effect on the process of nonverbal creativity. And the fact that the largest number of connections occurs in the left hemisphere can be associated with the specifics of the drawing using geometric shapes.

In the work of D. V. Zakharchenko and N. E. Sviderskaya (Institute of Higher Nervous Activity, Russian Academy of Sciences), EEG indicators of the effectiveness of performing the Torrens test - completing an unfinished drawing - were assessed. It turned out that high levels of flexibility and originality are associated with a decrease in the degree of spatial synchronization. The better the creative test is performed, the more pronounced these processes are. The explanation for this non-obvious result is that the brain needs to minimize external influences, including from other parts of the brain, in order to focus on solving a creative problem.

Increase ( in red

) and a decrease (
in blue
) in the power of rhythms when solving a creative problem compared to a non-creative one.
Above
: Image of your own picture.
Bottom
: image of given items. Image: Chemistry and Life

It turns out that neurons in different parts of the brain do not always need to unite to solve a creative problem. In the first stages, synchronizing work at a slower rhythm helps the brain reach the desired functional state. But during the creative process itself, it is necessary to get rid of some connections in order not to be distracted by external influences and to avoid excessive control from other parts of the brain. Neurons engaged in a creative task seem to say: “Don’t interfere, let me concentrate.”

Creativity zones: myth or reality?

Researchers received the first information about the localization of creative abilities in the brain not in an experiment, but in the clinic. Observations of patients with various brain injuries showed which areas of the cortex play a role in visual creativity. Thus, the parieto-occipital regions of the left hemisphere are responsible for the visual representation of an object. Other zones connect this representation with verbal description. Therefore, if, for example, the posterior parts of the left temporal cortex are damaged, a person can copy a picture, but is not able to draw it according to the instructions. The frontal lobes are responsible for thinking (extracting the semantic content of the picture) and drawing up a program of actions for the picture.

This is how Academician N.P. Bekhtereva described the state of the problem of mapping higher brain functions: “The study of the brain organization of various types of mental activity and states has led to the accumulation of material indicating that physiological correlates of different types of mental activity can be found in almost every point of the brain. Since the middle of the 20th century, debates about the equipotentiality of the brain and localization—the idea of ​​the brain as a patchwork quilt woven from a variety of centers, including the highest functions—have not subsided. Today it is clear that the truth is in the middle, and a third, systemic approach has been adopted: the higher functions of the brain are ensured by a structural and functional organization with rigid and flexible links.”

The most information about the spatial organization of creative activity in the brain at the Human Brain Institute was obtained using the PET method. In the experiments of M. G. Starchenko et al. (N. P. Bekhtereva, S. V. Pakhomov, S. V. Medvedev), when subjects were asked to compose a story from words (see above), the local speed of cerebral blood flow was studied. To make a conclusion about the involvement of certain areas of the brain in the creative process, scientists compared PET images obtained during creative and control tasks. The difference in the image indicated the contribution of cortical areas to creativity.

Statistically significant differences in local cerebral blood flow in blood flow comparisons when subjects performed verbal tests with different creative loads: DW

- difference in cerebral blood flow when performing a creative task compared to a non-creative one.
RW
is the difference in cerebral blood flow during a more difficult non-creative task compared to an easier non-creative task. Image: Chemistry and Life

The results obtained led the authors to the conclusion that “creative activity is ensured by a system of a large number of links distributed in space, with each link playing a special role and demonstrating a certain activation pattern.” However, they identified areas that seemed to be more involved in creative activity than others. This is the prefrontal cortex (part of the frontal cortex) of both hemispheres. Researchers believe that this area is associated with the search for necessary associations, extracting semantic information from memory, and maintaining attention. The combination of these forms of activity likely leads to the birth of a new idea. Of course, the frontal cortex is involved in creativity, and PET has demonstrated activation of the frontal lobes of both hemispheres. According to previous studies, the frontal cortex is the center of semantics, and the right frontal lobe is considered responsible for the ability to formulate concepts. And the anterior cingulate cortex is believed to be involved in the process of information selection.

Summarizing the data from various experiments, N.P. Bekhtereva names several areas of the cerebral cortex that are more involved in the creative process. To navigate the topography of the cerebral cortex, they use the numbering of fields identified by the German anatomist Korbinian Brodmann (a total of 53 Brodmann fields - PB). PET data illustrate a connection with the creative component of tasks in the middle temporal gyrus (PB 39). Perhaps this zone provides flexibility of thinking and the connection of fantasy and imagination. A connection was also found with the creative process of the left supramarginal gyrus (PB 40) and the cingulate gyrus (PB 32). It is believed that PB 40 provides flexibility of thinking to the maximum extent, and PB 32 provides information selection.

Here is the data provided by Rex Jung, associate professor in the department of neurology, psychology and neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico. In his experiments, he used tests for inventing multiple uses of objects and for complex associations. The results identified three anatomical regions related to creativity: the temporal lobe, the cingulate gyrus, and the anterior callosum. In more creative subjects, an increase in the thickness of the anterior temporal lobes was found.

Right and left

Ideas about which hemisphere of the brain is more important for creativity vary widely. Traditionally, many experts share the opinion that the right hemisphere is more involved in the creative process. There is a completely logical explanation for this, since the right hemisphere is more associated with concrete, imaginative thinking. This idea is confirmed by experimental evidence. In most of the results obtained, during creative thinking, the right hemisphere is activated to a greater extent than the left.

Scientists have obtained some information about brain symmetry or asymmetry of creative activity from clinical cases. Although these results are mixed. Cases have been described where, when the corpus callosum (the structure that provides communication between the hemispheres) was excised for medical reasons, patients' ability to perform creative activity decreased. On the other hand, there are examples when suppression of the left hemisphere released the artistic creative activity of patients, their drawings became more original and expressive. And when the right hemisphere was suppressed, the originality of artistic creativity in the same patients sharply decreased. This supports the idea that the controlling left hemisphere inhibits the creativity of the right.

Fields of the cerebral hemispheres (according to Brodmann's classification). Fields 32, 39, 40 are most likely related to creativity. Image: Chemistry and Life

From this perspective, one can consider the creative capabilities of patients suffering from schizophrenia, in whose brain interhemispheric connections are weakened. Apparently, mental illness, transporting people into a special existentiality, removes some restrictions and releases the unconscious, which can be expressed in a surge of creative activity. However, modern experts are not inclined to exaggerate the importance of schizophrenia in creativity. Indeed, among brilliant artists and musicians, many suffered from mental illness, for example Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, but among patients in psychiatric clinics, truly gifted people are still rare.

With verbal creativity the situation is apparently even more complicated. Employees of N.P. Bekhtereva’s laboratory noted activation of both the right and left frontal lobes when performing a difficult creative task of composing a story from words (see above). Thus, complex verbal creativity requires the participation of both hemispheres.

Based on the results of his study, Andreas Fink notes that in more creative individuals, when performing a verbal creative task, large changes in the alpha range occurred in the right hemisphere. There were no such differences among less creative people.

Creativity, intelligence and personality

The problem of the relationship between creative abilities and the level of intelligence and psychological characteristics of the individual was studied by O. M. Razumnikova (Institute of Physiology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Novosibirsk). She emphasizes that creativity is a complex phenomenon that is determined by many psychological traits, such as neuroticism, extroversion, and the search for novelty. First of all, it was interesting to see how the degree of creative ability is related to the IQ indicator of intelligence. In the process of creative thinking, existing knowledge and images must be retrieved from long-term memory to serve as raw material for new ideas. The breadth of this knowledge and the speed of information selection (as measured by IQ) increase the ability to generate unusual ideas through the depth of insight and use of concepts from different semantic categories. The strategy for searching for ideas based on information selection is determined by the interaction of different areas of the cerebral cortex

Personality characteristics from the point of view of psychophysiology depend on specific cortical-subcortical interactions. These are the “reticular formation - thalamus - cortex” connections that provide brain activation - the nature of these connections largely determines the degree of extra-introversion. Interactions between the cortex and the limbic system are responsible for emotional reactions and determine the degree of neuroticism.

The purpose of the work was to test the hypothesis about the influence of intelligence and psychological characteristics on EEG indicators of creative activity. Among the subjects, based on the results of completing a creative task, a group of creative and non-creative ones was identified. But in both groups there were individuals with both high and low IQ, both high and low neurotic, both extroverts and introverts. The relationships between creativity, intelligence, and personality type were mixed.

Subjects with high intelligence and creativity demonstrated increased spatial synchronization between the frontal and temporo-parietal-occipital regions in the beta 2 range. This appears to help them successfully retrieve information from memory and use it to generate original ideas through divergent thinking. Subjects with low intelligence and high creativity did not show such a picture. Perhaps their creative abilities are realized through a different mechanism.

In general, creative individuals are characterized by a wide variety of degrees of intelligence and psychological traits, which, according to the authors, indicates the flexibility of this thinking strategy.

Creativity is emotional

Many studies have shown that performing creative tasks produces stronger emotions than performing control tasks. This is confirmed both by verbal feedback from the subjects themselves and by registration of physiological indicators.

Jan R. Wessel from the Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research describes the results of recording electromyograms of facial muscles in subjects who solved a problem in a creative way, in comparison with those who solved it in the usual way - enumeration of options. In creative subjects, at the moment preceding the “insight” (insight), the facial muscles give off a strong emotional reaction. It arises even before realizing the solution and is much stronger than in those who solve the problem in the usual way.

It is not surprising that positive emotions stimulate creativity: they increase the fluency of thinking, speed up the retrieval of information from memory and its selection, facilitate the emergence of associations, that is, they contribute to the flexibility of thinking.

The influence of positive and negative emotions on EEG indicators of creative thinking was studied by N. V. Shemyakina and S. G. Danko. The subjects had to come up with original definitions for emotionally neutral, emotionally positive or negative words from another semantic field. In emotionally neutral creative tasks, they obtained a decrease in spatial synchronization in the high-frequency beta-2 range. The authors view this as evidence of the dispersal of attention in creative thinking. But with positive emotions, the picture changed and the spatial synchronization of the EEG in high frequencies increased.

Creativity and error detector

Another interesting aspect of the study of creative thinking is its interaction with an error detector, the mechanism of which was discovered by N.P. Bekhtereva back in the 60s of the last century. Apparently, in different parts of the brain there are groups of neurons that react to the discrepancy between an event and an action and a certain pattern or matrix. “You leave the house and feel that something is happening wrong - it’s the brain’s error detector that discovered that you violated the stereotyped actions and did not turn off the lights in the apartment,” explains Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of the Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences S. V. Medvedev. The error detector is considered as one of the control mechanisms of the brain. How is it related to creativity?

The hypothesis of N.P. Bekhtereva, which is developed by her students, is as follows. In a healthy brain, an error detector protects a person from thinking in stereotypical, trivial situations in the course of ordinary life. With any learning, necessary restrictions are formed in the brain along with positive ones; they are implemented precisely with the help of an error detector. But sometimes his controlling work can become excessive. The error detector prevents the emergence of novelty, breaking through dogmas and laws, overcoming stereotypes, that is, it fetters creative thinking. After all, one of the main elements of creativity is a departure from stereotypes.

The operation of the error detector can be suppressed in various ways, including alcohol or drugs. It is no coincidence that many creative people have resorted and continue to resort to these methods of disinhibiting their brain. But there may be another way. “In the creator’s brain,” explains N.P. Bekhtereva, “a restructuring takes place, and the error detector begins not to suppress it, but to help it - to protect it from triviality, from “reinventing the wheel.” In this way, creativity not only transforms the world, but also transforms the human brain.”

Creativity can be developed

Not all people are equally talented, it is in their genes. Gifted people can be envied, but - and this is good news - you can develop and train your own creativity. Andreas Fink thinks so. Positive motivation, the use of special techniques such as “brainstorming”, relaxation and meditation exercises, humor and positive emotions and, finally, placing a person in situations that stimulate creative thinking are suitable for this.

A group of subjects were trained for two weeks, asking them to solve creative problems. In particular, they had to come up with names, titles, slogans, etc. Over time, they coped with the tasks better and better, and since the tasks were new each time, it is obvious that this is not the result of training, but of the development of creative abilities . Objective changes also occurred: as creativity was trained, the alpha rhythm in the frontal lobes of the brain increased in the subjects.

Increased alpha rhythm power in the brain after creativity training. Control group - left

, the experimental group is
on the right
. Image: Chemistry and Life

We have tried to very superficially outline the current state of the problem of the psychophysiology of creativity. It turned out to be difficult and sometimes contradictory. This is just the beginning of the journey. Obviously, gradually, as knowledge about the brain accumulates, a stage of generalization will begin and the picture of the brain organization of creativity will become clearer. However, the point is not only in the complexity of the subject of research, but also in its nature. “It is possible,” writes N.P. Bekhtereva, “that no high technologies of today or tomorrow will save from some diversity in results due to individual variations in the strategy and tactics of the brain in the “free flight” of creativity.”

The author expresses gratitude to the Director of the Institute of Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences S. V. Medvedev for his comprehensive assistance, Candidate of Psychological Sciences M. G. Starchenko, Candidates of Biological Sciences N. V. Shemyakina and Zh. V. Nagornova for assistance and provision of materials .

General recommendations

Much more important are exercises aimed at improving the connections between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Development methods include:

1. A very simple exercise involves simultaneously stroking your stomach with your right hand and tapping your head with your left hand. You should do it slowly at first, carefully monitoring the movements of each hand, and then gradually speed up.
2. The next exercise also requires arm work. Having placed them in front of him, a person should draw a square in the air with one, and, for example, a star with the other. At the same time, as soon as he notices progress, that is, it becomes easier to perform the exercise, he should change hands.
3. A more complex coordination exercise involves holding the tip of your nose with one hand while holding the opposite ear with the other. The training method is to change hands as quickly as possible.
4. Depending on whether a person is right-handed or left-handed, you should try to do familiar things with your opposite hand, such as brushing your teeth or eating.
5. Dancing classes, in particular tango, help develop both hemispheres at the same time.

There are also a number of exercises that will help harmoniously develop both hemispheres of the brain.

1. "Ring". Consistently and very quickly connect the fingers of both hands into a ring with the thumb for several minutes.
2. “X-Men” - on paper of any size, draw in bright color two intersecting straight lines in the form of the letter “X” and hang the sheet on the wall. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, back straight. The gaze is directed to the point of intersection of the lines. At the same time, connect the elbow of your right hand with the raised knee of your left leg. Perform vigorously for several minutes. This type of training very effectively relieves fatigue after routine work and invigorates.
3. “Multi-colored confusion” - you will need a piece of paper on which the names of the colors are written with multi-colored felt-tip pens. The difficulty is that the name and colors do not match each other. For example, the word “yellow” is written in red, “green” in blue. The more words, the better. You need to quickly read aloud not the word, but the name of the color with which it is written.

The nature of the left hemisphere

Left-hemisphere people are often emphatically rational and reasonable. They write a lot and willingly, they easily remember long texts, and their speech is correct. They are characterized by a heightened sense of duty, responsibility, integrity, and the internal nature of processing emotions. They often occupy administrative positions, but they lack flexibility, spontaneity and spontaneity in expressing feelings. They prefer to act according to pre-drawn up schemes and stencils, and have difficulty rebuilding their relationships.