The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves

by Eric R. Kandel

Limb and Braun found that before the pianists began to improvise, their brain showed a ‘deactivation’ of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. However, when they were playing the memorised tune, this region remained active. In other words, while they were improvising, their brain was damping down their inhibitions normally mediated by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. They were able to create new music in part because they were uninhibited and not self-conscious about being creative. Simply turning off the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex won’t turn any of us into a great pianist, however. These pianists benefited from the lifting of inhibitions only because they, like most other successful creative people, had spent years practising their art form, filling their brains with musical ideas that they could spontaneously recombine on stage.