Creativity, brain, and art: biological and neurological considerations

Abstract

Creativity is commonly thought of as a positive advance for society that transcends the status quo knowledge. Humans display an inordinate capacity for it in a broad range of activities, with art being only one. Most work on creativity’s neural substrates measures general creativity, and that is done with laboratory tasks, whereas specific creativity in art is gleaned from acquired brain damage, largely in observing established visual artists, and some in visual de novo artists (became artists after the damage). The verb “to create” has been erroneously equated with creativity; creativity, in the classic sense, does not appear to be enhanced following brain damage, regardless of etiology. The turning to communication through art in lieu of language deficits reflects a biological survival strategy. Creativity in art, and in other domains, is most likely dependent on intact and healthy knowledge and semantic conceptual systems, which are represented in several pathways in the cortex. It is adversely affected when these systems are dysfunctional, for congenital reasons (savant autism) or because of acquired brain damage (stroke, dementia, Parkinson’s), whereas inherent artistic talent and skill appear less affected. Clues to the neural substrates of general creativity and specific art creativity can be gleaned from considering that art is produced spontaneously mainly by humans, that there are unique neuroanatomical and neurofunctional organizations in the human brain, and that there are biological antecedents of innovation in animals.

Between Don Quixote and Hamlet: vicissitudes of contemporary Cultural Psychiatry

“…There are, undoubtedly, areas of inquiry that respond to these requirements: creativity and psychopathology put together the highest expressions of human intellect and an honest search of neurobiological correlates (Zaidel, 2014;Jamison, 1993;; the topics of trauma and resilience conjugate genuinely cultural concepts such as family values, social modulating, fighting spirit and stoicism with neuronal systems, brain regions and biochemical patterns resulting from nature-determined experimental approaches (Russo, Murrough, Han, Charney, & Nestler, 2012). In the same context, functional and endocrine changes found in children and adolescent whose daily domestic life was presided by abuse and violence (Perna, Alciati, Prestia, Torti, & Nemeroff, 2013;Nemeroff, 2016) demonstrate the close neuro-physiological and neuro-chemical impact of strong socio-cultural phenomena.…”

La persona con demencia y el Museo Nacional del Prado: el arte de recordar

“…Según se apunta en Zaidel (2014), algunos artistas con demencia tipo Alzheimer, u otros tipos de demencia, continúan produciendo arte a pesar del trastorno neurodegenerativo que padecen, y sin una reducción obvia de sus expresiones artísticas (Crutch y Rossor, 2006;Fornazzari, 2005;Miller et al, 1998). Independientemente de los cambios en la complejidad y calidad de sus producciones, su conducta creativa no suele verse mermada hasta que el deterioro motor es tan severo como para comprometer, de manera significativa, su destreza manual.…”

“…Pero incluso en casos en los que el daño neuronal es difuso, y no está localizado en una región concreta, la degeneración de las redes neuronales que ejercen un control inhibitorio sobre la corteza cerebral podría favorecer, también, las manifestaciones artísticas, en la medida que dicho deterioro desembocaría en una menor represión de los impulsos expresivos (Zaidel, 2014). De cualquier forma, y en base a lo expuesto, lo relevante no solo es que la demencia apenas afecte al impulso creador de artistas consumados que desarrollan el síndrome, sino que, en ocasiones puntuales, haya pacientes sin producción artística previa que comiencen a manifestar conductas creativas de manera espontánea.…”

“…El hecho de que la degeneración neuronal apenas afecte al impulso creador (Zaidel, 2014), independientemente de la ayuda y orientación que resulten oportunas para la canalización de ese impulso, constituye, en nuestra opinión, uno de los motivos que justifican un programa de estimulación basado en el arte. Otro emana de la necesidad de facilitar la accesibilidad física y cognitiva a público con necesidades específicas de aprendizaje y comunicación, a la luz de la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos, que ampara el derecho de todo individuo a tomar parte en la vida cultural de la comunidad y a gozar de las artes.…”

Awareness in innovators: from ‘outside the box’ to ‘inside the bubble’

“…2 Zaidel (2004), for instance, proposes a neuroanatomical approach for analyzing creativity, identifying four types of innovation based on two types of information and two modes in which the brain processes it. 3 A recent investigation of how innovations arise in the collaborative context of bat and ball sports, the interested reader is referred to Goorha (2016).…”