Sinapsis - Episodio 1: Creatividad y cerebro
Summary
TLDREl guion del video explora la conexión entre la creatividad y el cerebro humano, desde las antiguas pinturas rupestres hasta las investigaciones modernas en neurociencia cognitiva. Se desmitifica el mito de que la creatividad reside solo en el hemisferio derecho del cerebro, y se presenta la creatividad como un proceso complejo que implica múltiples áreas cerebrales y redes neuronales. Además, se menciona la posible relación entre la creatividad y las enfermedades mentales, invitando a reflexionar sobre cómo el cerebro, en su complejidad, da lugar a la originalidad y la innovación en el arte y la ciencia.
Takeaways
- 🎨 El arte es una parte esencial de la vida humana, desde la Edad de Piedra, los hombres de cueva transformaban materiales en formas exuberantes.
- 🧠 La creatividad es el proceso de generar algo nuevo a través de la transformación o trascendencia de lo existente, y es característico de nuestra especie, Homo sapiens.
- 🧬 La neuroimagen funcional permite medir cambios en la actividad cerebral, lo que ha llevado a la fusión de la psicología cognitiva y la neurobiología, dando lugar a la Neurociencia Cognitiva.
- 🏆 Eric Kandel, galardonado con el Premio Nobel en 2000, se refiere a la neurociencia cognitiva como la 'nueva ciencia de la mente'.
- 🔄 El arte y la neurociencia ofrecen perspectivas complementarias sobre la mente humana, y en su intersección surge el proyecto 'SINAPSIS'.
- 🧠 El cerebro humano es el objeto más complejo del universo conocido, con aproximadamente ochenta y seis millones de neuronas y un quintillón de conexiones neuronales.
- 🤔 La mitología de que el hemisferio izquierdo es lógico y analítico, y el derecho es artístico y creativo, se basa en hallazgos antiguos pero no refleja la complejidad de la creatividad.
- 👁️ La creatividad involucra a áreas del cerebro en ambos hemisferios, y se asocia con diferentes aspectos del proceso creativo, como el Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex y el Posterior Parietal Cortex.
- 💡 La creatividad no reside en una sola región del cerebro, sino que emerge de 'circuitos neurales' o 'redes cerebrales a gran escala'.
- 🌐 Tres redes cerebrales principales están vinculadas con la creatividad: la Red de Control Ejecutivo, la Red de Modo Predeterminado y la Red de Saliencia.
- 🤓 La creatividad en literatura o matemáticas, que dependen en gran medida de la actividad del hemisferio izquierdo, cuestiona la simplificación de la creatividad a un solo hemisferio.
- 🔮 La creatividad también puede ser influenciada por procesos inconscientes, como encontrar soluciones a problemas sin estar activamente pensando en ellos.
- 🧬 La investigación sobre la relación entre creatividad y trastornos mentales es compleja y tiene una larga historia cultural, desde Aristóteles hasta la observación contemporánea de la 'alexithymia' y la 'symbolexia'.
- 🌐 La creatividad es un fenómeno culturalmente moldeado que requiere la integración de hallazgos neurocientíficos con perspectivas de psicología, ciencias sociales y humanidades.
Q & A
¿Cuál es la definición de 'creatividad' según el video?
-La creatividad es el proceso de generar algo nuevo mediante la transformación o trascendencia de lo existente.
¿Qué es la 'neuroimagen funcional' y cómo ha impactado el estudio de la creatividad?
-La neuroimagen funcional es una técnica que permite medir cambios físicos en la actividad cerebral mientras un sujeto realiza una tarea. Ha facilitado la fusión de la psicología cognitiva y la neurobiología, dando lugar a la neurociencia cognitiva, que investiga las bases neurales de la creatividad.
¿Cómo se relaciona la creatividad con los hemisferios cerebrales, y cuál es un mito común al respecto?
-Se ha sugerido que el hemisferio derecho está más involucrado en la creatividad, mientras que el izquierdo se encarga de tareas rutinarias. Sin embargo, es un mito común que el hemisferio izquierdo es lógico y el derecho es artístico; en realidad, la creatividad involucra la interacción compleja de ambos hemisferios.
¿Qué descubrimientos hizo Eric Kandel sobre la memoria, y cómo se relacionan con la creatividad?
-Eric Kandel descubrió las bases biológicas de la memoria, que es fundamental para la creatividad, ya que los procesos creativos a menudo requieren la recuperación y reorganización de recuerdos almacenados en el cerebro.
¿Qué tres redes cerebrales están vinculadas al pensamiento creativo?
-Las tres redes cerebrales vinculadas al pensamiento creativo son: la Red de Control Ejecutivo, la Red en Modo Predeterminado y la Red de Saliencia. Estas redes trabajan juntas para facilitar la generación y la implementación de ideas creativas.
¿Qué rol juegan los procesos inconscientes en la creatividad?
-Los procesos inconscientes son importantes para la creatividad. Mientras la mente consciente se aleja del problema, los procesos de pensamiento inconscientes continúan activos y pueden revelar soluciones inesperadas.
¿Cómo influyen la 'fluidez', la 'flexibilidad' y la 'originalidad' en la creatividad?
-La 'fluidez' se refiere a la producción de una gran cantidad de ideas, la 'flexibilidad' a la diversidad de las ideas generadas, y la 'originalidad' a la novedad de las ideas. Estos son atributos comunes en sujetos altamente creativos.
¿Cuál es la relación entre la creatividad y la psicopatología según el video?
-El video sugiere que hay una larga historia cultural que vincula la creatividad con la psicopatología. Algunos estudios han observado que ciertas condiciones mentales pueden estar asociadas con una mayor creatividad, pero esta relación es compleja y no está completamente comprendida.
¿Qué es la 'simbolexia' y cómo se relaciona con la creatividad?
-La 'simbolexia' es una capacidad aumentada de los módulos cerebrales para intercambiar información, lo que se cree que facilita la creatividad. Este concepto implica una comunicación interhemisférica efectiva a través del cuerpo calloso.
¿Cómo pueden la neurociencia y otras disciplinas contribuir al entendimiento de la creatividad?
-Para entender completamente la creatividad, es necesario integrar los hallazgos de la neurociencia con las perspectivas de la psicología, las ciencias sociales, las humanidades y, por supuesto, las experiencias y emociones de los artistas. Esto se debe a que la creatividad es un fenómeno complejo que se desarrolla en un contexto cultural.
Outlines
🎨 La creatividad y su estudio desde la neurociencia
El primer párrafo introduce la importancia de la creatividad en la vida humana desde la época de la Edad de Piedra hasta el presente, y cómo esta capacidad de transformar el entorno es inherente a nuestra especie, los Homo sapiens. Se menciona el uso de la neuroimagen funcional para medir cambios en la actividad cerebral durante la realización de tareas, lo que ha llevado a la fusión de la psicología cognitiva y la neurobiología en la neurociencia cognitiva. Eric Kandel, galardonado con el Premio Nobel, habla de esta disciplina como la 'nueva ciencia de la mente'. Además, se presenta el programa SINAPSIS, que explorará las raíces neurales de la creatividad, y se destaca la complejidad del cerebro humano, con sus ochenta y seis millones de neuronas y un número asombroso de conexiones neurales.
🧠 Mitos y verdades sobre la creatividad y el cerebro
El segundo párrafo desentraña algunos mitos sobre la función cerebral, como la creencia popular de que el hemisferio derecho es el de la creatividad y el hemisferio izquierdo el de la lógica y análisis. Se discuten estudios antiguos y modernos que sugieren que el hemisferio derecho podría estar especializado en la búsqueda de novedad, mientras que el izquierdo procesa información rutinaria. Se mencionan experimentos que implican a regiones específicas del cerebro en la resolución de rompecabezas y la aparición de ideas creativas, pero también se señala que la creatividad es un proceso complejo que no se puede reducir a una sola región cerebral. Se introducen las redes cerebrales involucradas en la creatividad y se sugiere que la conexión entre estas redes puede predecir la capacidad de pensamiento creativo del individuo.
🔍 La relación entre creatividad, psicopatología y la cultura
El tercer párrafo explora la relación histórica y cultural entre la creatividad y la psicopatología, desde la antigua Grecia hasta la psychiatría moderna, pasando por la filosofía existencial y el concepto de 'alexithymia'. Se invita a un especialista, el Dr. Jesús Ramírez-Bermúdez, para profundizar en esta conexión y se plantea la idea de que la creatividad no es un fenómeno aislado, sino que está influenciada por el contexto cultural. Se enfatiza la importancia de integrar hallazgos neurocientíficos con perspectivas de otras disciplinas para entender plenamente la complejidad de la creatividad. El párrafo concluye con una cita de Emily Dickinson que refleja la profundidad del cerebro y se invita al público a seguir explorando este tema a través de las redes sociales y los próximos episodios del programa.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Creatividad
💡Neuroimagen funcional
💡Ciencia cognitiva
💡Hemisferios cerebrales
💡Corpus callosum
💡Neurología clínica
💡Redes cerebrales
💡Conexión interhemisférica
💡Psicología experimental
💡Flujo gamma
💡Alexitimia
Highlights
El arte es una parte esencial de la vida humana, con raíces que se remontan a la Edad de Piedra.
La creatividad es el proceso de generar algo nuevo a través de la transformación o la trascendencia del existente.
La neuroimagen funcional ha permitido la fusión de la psicología cognitiva y la neurobiología, dando lugar a la Neurociencia Cognitiva.
Eric Kandel, galardonado con el Premio Nobel, define esta área de estudio como la 'nueva ciencia de la mente'.
La creatividad y la neurociencia ofrecen perspectivas complementarias sobre la mente humana.
El cerebro humano tiene aproximadamente ochenta y seis millones de neuronas, con un potencial de un quincillón de conexiones neurales.
El cerebro está dividido en dos hemisferios, cada uno con cuatro lóbulos, y conectados por el cuerpo calloso.
Existe un mito popular sobre la especialización del hemisferio derecho en la creatividad y el hemisferio izquierdo en la lógica y el análisis.
La idea de que la lesión del hemisferio izquierdo puede liberar la creatividad del hemisferio derecho data de estudios sobre neurología clínica.
La neuroimagen funcional muestra que el hemisferio derecho busca la novedad mientras el izquierdo procesa la información familiar.
Estudios sobre resolución de rompecabezas sugieren que el hemisferio derecho es clave en momentos de insight creativo.
La creatividad no reside únicamente en un hemisferio; es un proceso complejo que puede manifestarse de diversas maneras.
El flujo de trabajo creativo involucra áreas en ambos hemisferios, como el Cortex Prefrontal Dorsolateral y el Cortex Parietal Posterior.
La creatividad surge de 'circuito neural' o 'redes cerebrales a gran escala' en lugar de áreas aisladas.
Se han identificado tres redes cerebrales principales relacionadas con la creatividad: la Red de Control Ejecutivo, la Red de Modo Predeterminado y la Red de Saliencia.
La conexión entre estas redes cerebrales puede predecir la capacidad de pensamiento creativo individual.
La relación entre creatividad y trastornos mentales es un tema complejo con una larga historia cultural.
El concepto de 'alexithymia' y su inverso, 'symbolexia', sugieren una conexión entre la comunicación interhemisférica y la creatividad.
La creatividad es un fenómeno culturalmente moldeable que requiere de una integración de hallazgos neurocientíficos con perspectivas de otras disciplinas.
La experiencia y emociones de cada artista durante la creación de su obra permanecen enigmáticas para la neurociencia.
Transcripts
Art is an essential part of human life
Since the Stone Age, cavemen transformed
the materials around them
to shape, for example,
the fangs of a mamooth into exuberant female bodies
and they used natural pigments
to paint on their caves' walls.
The artwork that we admire in museums, theaters or concert halls,
that we listen to on our electronic devices
or that we experience through a screen
arose from that sudden need to transform the environment
that characterizes our species, the Homo sapiens.
This process of generating something new
by transforming or transcending the existent
is called "CREATIVITY".
How to study creativity?
Nowadays, technological advances
allow us to measure physical changes in brain activity
while a subject performs a task.
This is called "functional neuroimaging",
which facilitated the fusion of two disciplines
cognitive psychology, which studies the functioning of the mind
and neurobiology, which studies the biology of the nervous system
This fusion gave birth to Cognitive Neuroscience,
an experimental discipline seeking to answer questions such as:
“What happens in the brain when we learn, perceive or remember?
What is the biological basis of emotions and feelings?
How does our brain process different types of information from the world?
Eric Kandel, neuroscientist who received the Nobel Prize in 2000
for his discoveries concerning the biological bases of memory,
refers to this field of study as "the new science of mind".
Art and neuroscience offer complementary perspectives
on the human mind.
At this intersection was born
SINAPSIS :Connections between art and your brain
I am Fernanda Pérez Gay, I have a PhD in neuroscience,
and in this first episode of SINAPSIS
I will guide you through the long journey
undertaken by psychologists, neurologists and neuroscientists to
investigate the neural roots of creativity.
Creativity and the brain.
The brain is said to be the most complex object in the known Universe
The human brain has approximately
EIGHTY SIX MILLION NEURONS!
and each one of them can make up to 15,000 synapses
with other neurons in other areas of the brain.
If we do the math, this will give us an approximate of
ONE QUINTILLON neural connections!
If we wanted to calculate the number of possible neural circuits
and the brain states or configurations that emerge from them
we would face astronomical numbers.
Let's begin by saying that our brain has two hemispheres:
the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere,
each with four lobes:
The frontal lobe,
the parietal lobe,
the temporal lobe
and the occipital lobe.
Our two hemispheres are not completely independent:
they are connected by a thick bundle of nerve fibers:
the corpus callosum.
The right and left hemispheres have some differences
in the way they process information:
Each hemisphere may be predominantly activated for a certain type of task.
Let's take, for example, language: It is well known
that grammar and word meaning are produced and decoded in the left hemisphere,
while the right hemisphere processes the musicality of language (intonation).
Have you ever heard that
the left hemisphere is logic, rational and analytic,
while the right hemisphere is artistic, holistic and creative?
This is actually one of the most popular myths about brain functioning!
However, this idea is based in some findings
that emerged precisely in the first approaches
to the science of creativity.
Before the era of functional neuroimaging
creativity was approached mostly in clinical settings,
studying patients that had suffered brain damage.
When a particular region of the brain is injured,
the function of other brain regions may become enhanced.
In this line, the famous neurologist Hughlings Jackson
described cases of children with damage to the left hemisphere
noting some of them heightened their musical ability.
Given these findings, he thought that, in normal conditions,
the left hemisphere inhibited the function of the right hemisphere:
Damage to the left side of the brain would interrupt this inhibition,
leading to creative outbursts
orchestrated by the right hemisphere.
Other neurologists studied cases of patients with dementia
whose damage was largely restricted to the left hemisphere,
reporting that, while the disease advanced, some of these patients
showed a sudden emergent of artistic talent.
A century later, using a functional neuroimaging technique
researchers found that, when a task becomes routine
or a stimulus is presented repeatedly,
activation of the right hemisphere decreases,
whereas the left hemisphere continues to be active.
These findings suggested that the left hemisphere
processes routine or familiar information,
while the right hemisphere is specialized in novelty seeking.
Another study that supported the role
of the right hemisphere in creativity focused on puzzle solving.
There are two ways of solving a puzzle:
the first one requires methodical testing of potential solutions,
and the second implies a moment of creative insight (Eureka!).
Based on this model, two scientists (Jung-Beeman & Kounios)
ran a series of experiments in which subjects
had to solve simple problems in the lab,
while they recorded their electrical brain activity.
Their study revealed that a region of the right temporal lobe
exhibited a spike of very high-frequency electrical activity
(known as "gamma" brain waves)
at two different points in time:
1. At the beginning of the task
and 2. Just before the sudden revelation of the solution.
Despite these findings, to affirm that creativity resides in the right hemisphere
would be to oversimplify the evidence.
In fact, creativity is a complex process
and can be expressed in many ways.
The evidence we mentioned so far leaves many open questions,
for example : what happens with creativity in literature or math,
capacities that depend to a large extent on the activity of the left hemisphere?
Wouldn't it be a little simplistic to assume that
in a densely interconnected brain,
creativity is restricted to a particular region?
Stay with us in SINAPSIS
to answer some of these questions with the most recent studies
of the neuroscience of creativity.
"NEURO-WONDERS"
Have you ever found a problem's solution when you weren't actively thinking of it?
Many researchers have pointed out
that unconscious thought processes
can play an important role in creativity.
While our conscious brain activity draws away from the problem,
those thought processes of which we are not aware keep active,
suddently revealing the idea
we had been actively looking without any succes
Two psychologist from the Netherlands hypothesized that,
when we re-direct our attention
to other tasks beyond the problem we are trying to solve,
our brain makes a transition from
a CONVERGENT, more rigid thinking
to a DIVERGENT, more associative thinking.
In a series of psychology experiments, they asked subjects
to make a list of places that started with the letter A
They found that distracting subjects with other task after the instruction
resulted in lists that were more creative and unconventional
than the lists of those subjects that had to respond immediately.
This is an example of how relaxing and letting the mind wander a little bit,
can promote novel and more original solutions to a problem.
Highly creative subjects have certain common characteristics:
their FLUENCY (they produce high amounts of ideas),
their FLEXIBILITY (their ideas are very diverse)
and their ORIGINALITY (their ideas are novel or unusual).
So.. where is creativity located in the brain?
Can we localize it?
Is it really restricted to a particular brain region or hemisphere?
In recent years, many research teams
have identified brain regions
that exhibit higher activity during creative thinking tasks.
These areas, linked to creative thought
can be found in both the right AND THE LEFT hemisphere
and are associated to different aspects of the creative process.
For example, the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex
is essential to evaluate and select concepts that may not be evidently related
and integrate them into the same creative idea
while the Posterior Parietal Cortex
helps us to retrieve information linked to previously formed creative ideas
Also, some regions in the temporal lobe
are in charge of associating these ideas with long term memory.
These brain areas, of course, do not work in isolation:
Modern neuroscience consider that complex mental functions
do not result from the activity of a particular brain region
but rather emerge from "neural circuits" or "large-scale brain networks",
which include widespread, interconnected brain regions.
Until now, researchers have identified three main brain networks
linked to the funcioning of highly creative brains:
The "Executive Control Network"
The "Default Mode Network"
and the "Saliency Network".
To explain the interaction of these three networks
let's take an everyday example:
Imagine that you need to engage in a task that requires creative thought:
having to create something new from a blank canvas
or a white page.
When we sit down centering our attention
on solving a problem or generating new ideas,
we are engaging our "Executive Control Network".
The brain stuctures in this network allow us to focus
our attention on a single task for an extended period of time.
As you may know,
it is not usually during intense work moments that we come up with innovative ideas,
but rather during leisure or relaxing time
-when we are taking a shower, going for a walk,
or when we are about to go to sleep-.
It is then that we experience the famous EUREKA!
and finally find the solution we had been looking for.
How do we explain this?
Our "Default Mode Network" is active when
we are "day dreaming" or letting our mind wander.
This network keeps generating ideas through
spontaneous association while we distract or relax.
After identifying novel or potentially useful ideas within our mind wanderings
our "Salience Network" acts like a switch
forwarding this information to the "Executive Control Network"
to put these ideas into action.
One of the most recent studies about neuroimaging of creativity
found that the connection pattern of these three networks
allows to predict individual creative thinking ability.
This study (by Roger Beaty et al., published in PNAS, 2018)
provides a first integrative model of brain functioning behind creative thinking.
It is clear that we still have many unanswered questions,
for example:
Have you ever heard about the link between creativity and mental illness?
Is it true that subjects diagnosed with mental conditions are more creative?
This question is a tough one.
To speak about it, we invited a specialist,
Dr. Jesús Ramírez-Bermudez,
MD, neuropsychiatrist, researcher and writer.
"HUNTING FOR ANSWERS"
When we think about the link between creativity and psychopathology,
we have to admit that this approach has a long cultural history.
The classical reference may be the
"Problema XXX", which is at least attributed to Aristotle,
the famous greek philosopher, in which he questions
why is it that all "exceptional men"
(who have become eminent in poetry or the arts or even in politics)
shared a "melancholic temperament"
historically thought of in the hippocratical tradition
as the "black bile disease",
which would correspond -to a certain extent-
to what we refer today as "Major Depressive Disorder"
In a second historical moment we have the work of Karl Jaspers,
the iconic founder of present-day psychiatry
and a very important existential philosopher,
who wrote a book titled "Genius and madness" in which
he stated that, in certain patients, there was a clear link
between creativity and schizophrenia.
He gave the examples of Van Gogh and Hölderlin.
Even if it's quite difficult to make retrospective diagnosis,
he gave himself that permission to make this connection
claiming that the extremely unusual and interesting experiences
that patients with mental conditions live
could have a big impact in their artistic creation.
Finally, in a third, more contemporary moment, bringing us closer to modern science
we have the research done by Peter Emanuel Sifneos,
who coined the concept of "Alexithymia"
defined as an incapacity to verbalize emotions,
in which people find it extremely difficult to describe their own mental states
particularly their subjective feelings.
This is a phenomenon he observed as
a consequence of traumatic memories
people made when imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps.
A couple years later,
Klaus D. Hoppe, an important american psychiatrist
found that "alexithymia" could also be observed
in people that had undergone a surgical procedure
called "callosotomy", used in cases of refractory epilepsy,
in which the "corpus callosum" is completely severed
preventing the communication between the two brain hemispheres.
Hoppe thus suggested that the inverse of "alexithymia"
would be a CREATIVE phenomenon he named "symbolexia":
Defined as a heightened capacity of different brain modules
to receive information from other modules elsewhere in the brain
through the corpus callosum by means of INTERHEMISPHERIC communication.
This leads us to the question that we are asking today
in the fields of clinical and cognitive neuroscience:
How do communication between different brain networks
allows the transformation of information
that is behind the creative phenomenon?
Creativity is not a single trait, nor an isolated process
On the contrary, it takes place on a cultural context
that can shape it and promote it but also paralyze it.
To be able to understand a complex phenomenon such as creativity
we need to integrate neuroscientific findings
with the perspective of psychology, the social sciences, the humanities
and of course, with the artists' perspectives.
Even if we can find common cognitive processes
and their brain correlates
the experiences and emotions lived by each artist when they create their artwork
will remain inscrutable for neuroscience.
The brain -wrote Emily Dickinson- is deeper than the sea—
"For—hold them—Blue to Blue—
the one the other will absorb— as sponges—Buckets—do—"
We invite you to keep immersing in the fascinating brain waters
by following our social media accounts (IG:@sinapsis2019, FB: @sinapsisarteycerebro, TW: @sinapsis_2019)
And staying tuned for the next episoides of SINAPSIS: Connexions between art...
...and your brain.
Closing Credits: Original idea, research, script writing and host: Dr. Fernanda Pérez-Gay Juárez // Production: Ivan Méndez Rivera //Production assistants: Luis Ángel Pérez Córdova, Miguel Ángel Cañedo Zavaleta.
Video editing, post-production and graphic motion animation: Rodrigo Pérez-Grovas Álvarez. // Communication assistant: Ana Laura Pérez Flores.
Featured specialist: Dr. Jesús Ramírez-Bermúdez// Brain dissections and photography: Dr. Julio César Pérez
Acknowledgements: We thank the Faculty of Medicine of UNAM for allowing us to film in the Anatomy Department.
Music: -Original composition by Manuel Velázquez -Album Into Madness -Other songs by Scott Holmes, André Codeman Dee Yan-Jey
English translation: Fernanda Pérez-Gay **Funded by Fonds de Recherche du Québec.
Original project funding: FONCA (Arts and Culture Trust Fund), Mexican Secretariat of Culture
ACT Program (Arte, Ciencia y Tecnologías -Art, Science et Technologies) - FONCA, UNAM.
Mexico city, Mexico, 2019
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