A recent study just debunked the myth that says stimulating creativity can be done by tapping the right side of your brain. The research has just shown that what sets creative people apart is how well the two brain hemispheres communicate with each other.
Statisticians David Dunson of Duke University and Daniele Durante of the University of Padova studied the network of white matter connections among 68 separate brain regions. The participants were healthy college-age volunteers, according to Science Daily. In the human brain, an outer grey matter covers the white matter and it contains the axons that connect the neurons and transfer the electrical signals between each other.
A team led by neuroscientist Rex Jung of the University of New Mexico used a series of tests to assess creativity of the participants. They were measured based on their ability to arrive at several answers to a single questions. They were also asked to fill out some questionnaires about their achievements in certain areas including music, visual arts, dancing, cooking, as well as science, according to Decan Chronicle.
The researchers found that there was no difference between the two brain hemispheres when it comes to connectivity. However, when those who were part of the top 15 percent on the creativity tests were compared to the ones who were part of the bottom 15, it was found that the ones who had higher scores had better connections between their brain's left and right hemispheres.
According to Dunson, this approach can be used to tell if a person has a higher likelihood to be creative just by basing it on the network structure of their brain. He said that by doing brain scans, it might be helpful to predict what people are likely to be good at.
Meanwhile, their team is now working on developing methods to see whether brain connectivity also varies or changes with IQ.
