The Twists and Turns of Creativity

Abstract

Suzanne Nalbantian provides an overarching synthesis of the conclusions about creativity arrived at by the neuroscientific and humanist contributors to this volume. She shows that the neuroscience chapters present a span of approaches, including a “workspace model” of the creative brain (Jean-Pierre Changeux), the role of the default mode network (Marcus Raichle), cognitive processing during dreaming (Robert Stickgold), the fundamental systems and cellular foundations of creativity (Jaak Panksepp, Alcino Silva, and John Bickle), and the importance of brain circuit plasticity in quantitative creative cognition (Geraint Wiggins and Charlotte Stagg). The psychologists Robert Sternberg, Oshin Vartanian, and Liane Gabora offer cognitive approaches based on phenomena of mind. Nancy Andreasen and Paul Matthews show how studies of exceptional brains—those marked by genius or those altered by disease or drugs—illuminate the mechanisms of creativity. The humanist contributors to this book provide a range of perspectives from those who analyze creativity as a trait of the individual (Suzanne Nalbantian, Suzette Henke, Mark Hussey, and John Onians) and those who view it as shaped by social context (Peter Schneck, Donald Wehrs, and John Foster). Personal narratives of the creative process are provided by the musician Bruce Adolphe and the contemporary novelist Richard Powers. All the contributors explore aspects of the conscious processing and spontaneous, nonconsious processing that define creativity, which this volume investigates through a unique, interdisciplinary optic.