The study, by researchers at Drexel and Northwestern universities, sets at rest debate on the subject creative problem-solvers have a distinct pattern of brain activity — even at rest — compared to CONVENTIONAL PROBLEM SOLVERS. Details of the study has been published in the journal Neuropsychologia.
As part of the study, participants first had their electroencephalograms (EEGs), which depict brain activity, recorded. They were made to solve a series of anagrams (scrambled letters that can be rearranged to form words). Anagrams can be solved by methodically trying out different letter combinations, or they can be solved with a sudden insight — an "Aha!" moment.
The participants were then divided into two groups — those who reported solving the problems by sudden insight, and those who reported solving problems methodically. Resting-state brain activity for these groups was later compared. The two groups displayed strikingly different patterns of brain activity during the resting period at the beginning of the experiment.
Creative solvers exhibited greater activity in several regions of the right hemisphere — the region where "remote" associations between elements of a problem are processed. Greater right-hemisphere activity even during a "resting" state suggests that even the spontaneous thought of creative individuals contains more remote associations.
Creative and methodical solvers also exhibited different activity in areas of the brain that process visual information. The pattern of "alpha" and "beta" brainwaves in creative solvers was consistent with diffuse rather than focussed visual attention. Thus random experiences may trigger remote associations to produce an "Aha!" moment in creative people.
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