"When you try to solve a problem, you begin by concentrating on obvious facts and familiar solutions, to see if the answer lies there. This is a mostly left-brain stage of attack. If the answer doesnt come, the right and left hemispheres of the brain activate together. Neural networks on the right side scan remote memories that could be vaguely relevant. A wide range of distant information that is normally tuned out becomes available to the left hemisphere, which searches for unseen patterns, alternative meanings, and high-level abstractions."
"Having glimpsed such a connection, the left brain must quickly lock in on it before it escapes. The attention system must radically reverse gears, going from defocused attention to extremely focused attention. In a flash, the brain pulls together these disparate shreds of thought and binds them into a new single idea that enters consciousness. This is the aha! moment of insight, often followed by a spark of pleasure as the brain recognizes the novelty of what its come up with."
From a Newsweek article about "The Creativity Crisis", written by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman.
Also, the brain goes into a creativity turbo mode and locks out any distractions by deactivating the right-temporoparietal junction when improvising. However, that turbo mode only kicks in when you are highly trained/skilled in the field that you are improvising in. In this context, doing intensive Po thinking in any field probably qualifies as "improvising", I would think.
20.7.2010, 21:25