Ideas on Demand: A crash course on creativity. Bust creativity blocks, 10x your ideas, and become an idea machine. (10x Impact)

by Miliind Harrdas

two eminent psychologists, John Kounios from Drexel University and Mark Beeman from Northwestern University, joined hands. They carried out their experiments using EEG – Electroencephalography and fMRI – Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. (To know all the fascinating details about this experiment and for some deep insights, you can read the book1—book1—The Eureka Factor: Creative Insights and The Brain by John Kounios and Mark Beeman..) In the experiment, participants were asked to solve different types of puzzles. Participants were asked to press a button as soon as they thought of a solution to record the exact time when the answer was found. Investigators then correlated the time with the observations on fMRI and EEG machine to understand whether the answer had come to them suddenly, like a flash of insight, or if they used a systematic trial-and-error approach. The fMRI showed a corresponding increase in blood flow in the part of the brain's right temporal lobe involved in making connections between distantly related ideas. This activity was not present when the word problems were solved analytically. Simply speaking, the thought process that leads to aha moments or insights involves different parts of the brain compared to the solutions arrived at through analytical thinking.