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The Neuroscience of Creative Idea Generation

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Exploring Transdisciplinarity in Art and Sciences

Abstract

Creative idea generation is the source of amazing novel insights and original products, which enrich everyday life and represent valuable contributions to arts and sciences. But how does the brain produce creative ideas? This question has been addressed in cognitive neuroscience research by measuring the brain activation during creative idea generation using different techniques such as EEG and MRI. This chapter introduces some of the key findings in this field: What is the functional role of alpha activity during creative thought? What brain activation is associated with the generation of novel ideas? How do large-scale brain networks interact during creative performance? These findings are integrated into a neurocognitive process model (RISE), which proposes that retrieval, integration/simulation and evaluation represent central, distinguishable neurocognitive processes underlying creative idea generation.

In Kapoula, Z., Renoult, J., Volle, E., & Andreatta, M. (Eds.), Exploring Transdisciplinarity in Art and Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, BioTechMed Graz, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Mathias Benedek

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  1. Mathias Benedek
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Correspondence to Mathias Benedek .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Equipe IRIS, CNRS, University Paris-Descartes, Paris, France

    Zoï Kapoula

  2. ICM, INSERM & Sorbonne University, Paris, France

    Emmanuelle Volle

  3. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle, CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Julien Renoult

  4. IRCAM – CNRS – Sorbonne University / IRMA - GREAM - USIAS - University of Strasbourg, Paris, France

    Moreno Andreatta

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Benedek, M. (2018). The Neuroscience of Creative Idea Generation. In: Kapoula, Z., Volle, E., Renoult, J., Andreatta, M. (eds) Exploring Transdisciplinarity in Art and Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76054-4_2

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