¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ

Anna Abraham
MIT Press

Creativity is a product of the human mind. But why are some people more creative than others, making it seem elusive or a gift?

Having a neurodivergent brain has been proposed as one possibility. Take Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s musical creativity. It has been suggested that he had Tourette’s syndrome, a brain condition linked to a range of symptoms including obsessive behaviour, which could have played a role. Other proposals link creativity to intelligence or even to the use of psychedelic drugs.

In The Creative Brain: Myths and truths, neuroscientist Anna Abraham examines these ideas and four more, describing them as myths and dedicating a chapter to each. But rather than fully debunk them, Abraham’s premise is that they all contain a kernel of truth.

She delves into how these beliefs developed and spread – and why they are so hard to relinquish. Her focus is on how misinformation is often related to conflicting results in the scientific evidence that is supposed to back them up.

Take the common idea that the brain’s right hemisphere is associated with creativity. Both behavioural and brain-based studies have explored this, but findings are hard to compare because the ways of measuring different aspects, such as the level of creativity, vary greatly. This means we can find evidence supporting both the right and left hemispheres being dominant in creative activities, as well as the joint involvement of the two.

Such problems, says Abraham, stem from the fact that creativity typically involves many elements, but the focus is often drawn to just one, the imagination needed to make something new. Other aspects – such as the drive to create, the hard work involved and the ability to produce something that resonates with an audience – are also crucial. Many explanations, she says, treat creativity too simplistically: for example, taking psychedelic drugs can make someone more open, and thus better able to think creatively, but may not affect their motivation.

Abraham provides a good overview of the relationship between creativity and the brain, covering a lot of ground while doing so. But her book would have been a lighter read if it had included more colourful anecdotes to illustrate the myths. Her penchant for posing more questions than she answers can also sometimes feel unsatisfying.

All in all, however, Abraham provokes readers to think more deeply about brain-based creativity theories, even if they seem backed up by evidence. How creativity originates in the brain is complex and probably can’t be explained by a simple narrative. Perhaps we need a novel approach.

Sandrine Ceurstemont is a writer based in Morocco