The Neuroscience of Improv

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

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June 15, 2011

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The Neuroscience of Improv

When you enter the moment with heightened awareness, what you need to do becomes obvious. You discover that you already have the answers.

- Patricia Ryan Madson -

The Neuroscience of Improv

How does an act of imagination happen? How does the mind create on command? Recent experiments have attempted to figure out the mystery behind this kind of creativity, from John Coltrane letting loose on a saxophone to Jackson Pollock dripping paint on a canvas. These are works made entirely in the moment -- their beauty is spontaneous. Researchers have found that before a single note was played, jazz improv pianists exhibited a "deactivation" of the DLPFC, a brain area associated with planned actions and self-control. They were inhibiting their inhibitions, which allowed them to create without worrying about what they were creating. There was also a spike in the medial prefrontal cortex, an area often linked with self-expression. This article delves further into how creativity springs from a choreographed set of mental events. { read more }

Be The Change

There are times to plan, and times to substitute attention for preparation. A Stanford Theater Professor on knowing when to improvise: { more }


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