Creative flow as optimized processing: Evidence from brain oscillations during jazz improvisations by expert and non-expert musicians.
Neuropsychologia April 15, 2024 David Rosen, Yongtaek Oh, Christine Chesebrough et al.
During jazz improvisation, a flow state is linked to reduced frontal brain activity (transient hypofrontality) and, in highly experienced musicians, less activity in the default-mode network's posterior nodes. Less experienced musicians show no such modulation. The findings suggest creative flow reflects optimized, domain-specific processing from extensive practice, paired with diminished cognitive control, rather than broad engagement of task-positive networks.