Discussion Post I submitted for my Atlantic University TP5150 Course – August 5, 2020
I should have checked with Atlantic University before enrolling in this course of studies to see if there’d be any science requirements! As someone who barely escaped 8th Grade Environmental Sciences and skated by without ever taking chemistry, physics, or biology, science doesn’t come naturally. I found history, political science, theology, and spirituality much more suited for me. Answers are nuanced, and there are no lab requirements. I’ll take writing a paper over a multiple test or lab report any day!
My appreciation for science is growing, particularly in the area of quantum physics and the study of the brain. For me to grasp these concepts is a bit like when I tried to learn Spanish a few years back. I wasn’t very good with languages as a kid, so trying in my early 50’s was undoubtedly a slog. However, after watching Dr. Joe Dispenza’s Gaia series, Rewired, rewatching the groundbreaking show he appeared, What the Bleep Do We Know!?, and studying his book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, as part of TP5155, some of the concepts that Nancy Andreasen (2005, pp. 52-66) discusses in our assigned reading regarding how the brain operates is starting to make sense as long as I stay at the 30,000-foot level.
As someone with a career spent in communications, I’m naturally drawn to the synapse and neuron relationship. Andreasen describes the synapse as “the workhorse of the brain,” which “provides the mechanism by which neurons communicate with each other” (2005, p. 55). So the synapse is the bridge or link, similar to a wifi signal, that allows different neurons, with its “capacity for sending and receiving information” to talk to each other (2005, p. 54). And as Dr. Joe famously says in a YouTube video and numerous other places, “The principle in neuroscience is this: nerve cells that fire together, wire together” (Lee Wiggins, 2013), which is how we can instinctively do tasks that we’ve done repeatedly without even thinking about it. It’s also how people form good and bad habits, some of which can keep us trapped inside our heads.
As a brain function, therefore, creativity at one level is a communications process. The synapse bridges and binds various neurons together for an exchange of information and data. But what information is transmitted, and how does that translate into creativity? Andreasen provides an overview of the significant regions or lobes of the brain, which help explain where certain information stems. “The occipital lobes are used for vision, the temporal lobes for auditory perception and language, the pareital lobes for spatial perception and language, and the frontal lobes for ‘executive functions’ such as abstract thinking, planning, and some type of memory” (2005, pp.52-53).
To see how these various lobes may work in creating a series of data points or information transported by neurons connected by synapses, consider a fictitious journalist, Diane, who writes for an online magazine. Diane’s contacted the agent of a lead singer of a group that’s just cut a new album, and she wants to interview him. She relies on her frontal lobe to locate the agent, contact him, and arrange for a meeting. She wants to conduct the interview in a park since that’s the theme of the album and she also plans on shooting a few photographs, so she does some research (frontal lobe), and uses her occipital lobe to view images online to see if they’ll work for the backdrop. Before meeting the singer, she also uses her temporal lobe to listen to the album several times to get a feel for the sound and lyrics (language), so that she is prepared for the interview. Diane will probably also scout the site before meeting the lead singer so she can see and hear the surroundings and store impressions for further planning, so now all the regions of her brain are employed.
She arrives at the park at the designated time and meets the singer. They sit on the bench she scoped out previously. Diane’s prepared several questions ahead of time, and she begins the interview. Her audio recorder picks up everything so she’s free to focus more on his words and body language. At one point, she asks if he wouldn’t mind a few photographs, so she takes her camera out of her bag and sets him up on the bench in various poses using her parietal lobe to help position him, adjust the distance he is from the camera, the angle to the sun, etc. In the course of a one-hour interview and photoshoot, her brain has worked at a high-capacity, processing information in all regions that are transferred via a series of neuron-synapse communications highways.
Exhausted from all that’s she’s been through between the planning of the interview, meeting the singer, and conducting the interview and shoot, Diane lies down on her couch when she gets home. She begins thinking about one of the songs that features the figure of The Empress from a tarot deck as the main subject. She’s reminded of mother figures she’s had in her life as she nods off to sleep. While dreaming, Diane encounters a Greek goddess who is lavishing wine and fruits on all over her subjects. Diane wakes up and completes a quick online search to find that the goddess in her dream had an uncanny resemblance to Demeter, the Greek goddess “who made all things grow,” according to the Fact Monster website (Fact Monster, 2017). Her dream and quick search have given her an “aha moment.” She has the theme of the article: abundance, growth, the maturing of the band, and the blessings they are to their fans. She also decides that she’s going to work “Demeter” into the headline and include an image of her as one of the graphic accompaniments.
Diane’s also employed another element of her brain, and that’s what Andreasen labels “Unconscious Thought: The Edge of the Mind’s Precipice” (2005, p. 67). Andreasen adds that our “unconscious mental life…may be highly relevant to extraordinary creativity as well” (2005, p. 67). She adds that “extraordinary creativity is qualitatively different from ordinary creativity” and that the “underlying neural processes are distinct” as they tap “into the unconscious in ways that processors of ordinary creativity alone are usually unable to do” (2005, p. 78).
Her interview, dream, and the internet search, which resulted in her “aha moment” is also connected to free association, which Andreasen credits Freud for uncovering or at least labeling. She adds that the process “relied on pulling up a variety of associative links that lurked in the brain at an unconscious level” (2005, p. 69). Diane’s linking of the Greek goddess to the abundance to the album theme, and then to the title of the article are examples of free associations involving both her unconscious and unconscious minds. It’s all at the core of what makes someone “extraordinary creative,” as Andreasen suggests. She explains that the process begins as “associative links run wild, creating new connections, many of which might seem strange or implausible.” After potentially hours of this type of thinking, where “words, images, and ideas collide,” eventually, the more organized elements of the mind take over and finally “order emerges, and with it the creative product” (2005, p. 78).
Diane has all the pieces of the puzzle she needs to create a compelling article. The various lobes of her brain have brought together language, sounds, and images. Her unconscious gave her tremendous insights that began a productive session of free association. The neurons and synapses have allowed the information to flow smoothly between the regions of her brain. Now all that’s left to do is for her frontal lobe to pull it all together in a way that her editor will like and her readers will appreciate. And all under deadline!
References
Andreasen, N. (2005), The creative brain: the science of genius, New York, NY: First Plume Publishing
Fact Monster (2017, Feb. 21). Guide to worldwide goddesses. Retrieved from https://www.factmonster.com/biographies/guide-worldwide-goddesses
Wiggins, L. [Lee Wiggins]. (2013, Feb. 8). Dr Joe Dispenza- TED talks with Dr Joe Dispenza. [VIdeo]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W81CHn4l4AM