DU jazzers, take note: Creativity Jazzes Your Brain

[KansDem]

Study: Creativity Jazzes Your Brain

<snip>
Then they put six professional jazz pianists inside to measure brain activity while they played straight and when they improvised. They played, right-handed, both a simple C scale and a blues tune that Limb wrote, appropriately titled "Magnetism." Through earphones, they listened to a prerecorded jazz quartet accompaniment, to simulate a real gig.

Getting creative uses the same brain circuitry that Braun has measured during dreaming: First, inhibition switched off. The scientists watched a brain region responsible for that self-monitoring, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, shut down.

Then self-expression switched on. A smaller area called the medial prefrontal cortex fired up, a key finding as Braun's earlier research on how language forms linked that region to autobiographical storytelling. And jazz improvisation produces such individual styles that it's often described as telling your own musical story.

More intriguing, the musicians also showed heightened sensory awareness. Regions involved with touch, hearing and sight revved up during improv even though no one touched or saw anything different, and the only new sounds were the ones they created.

That doesn't necessarily mean this is the center of creativity. The brains of highly trained musicians might work differently than an amateur pianist's, or a painter's, or a writer's, something Limb and Braun hope to test next.

excite news

Maybe a good way to assure we don't grow senile is for us all to jam!

[jgraz]

1. Cool! Time to put away DU and go practice.

[americanyouth]

2. interesting...

When you really get into that "mode", you can easily relate to that. I've always been able to feel something change when I play, like turning off one switch and turning on another one, when everyting is in the right place, emotinally speaking. Another interesting point - too much or too little will actually have adverse effects, but when I smoke just the right amount of pot, that "mode" is almost instantaneous - regardless of what kind of mood I am in. I'd love to see what Limb and Braun have to say about that.

[FredStembottom]

3. ...and look how long jazz piano players tend to live!

Oscar Peterson - 82
Count Basie - 80
Jess Stacy - 90
George Shearing - 89 (and still going!)
Hank Jones - 90 (and keeps on ticking!)
Marian McPartland - 90 (again with the 90 and still going!)
etc. etc.

And not to even mention the dozens of jazz piano greats now in their 70's and physically looking like me at 51!