Creativity and the Brain’s Default Mode Network
Secrets of Creativity September 30, 2019 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190462321.003.0006 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Default mode network |
| Key points | Argues that intrinsic, ongoing brain activity is the dominant mode of brain function, consuming well over 90% of the brain's energy cost, and that the default mode network organizes this activity to build an internal model of the environment. Proposes that creativity arises at the interface between the DMN's egocentric perspective and the allocentric perspective of interacting networks, where comfort with risk-taking is adjudicated. |
Abstract
Abstract: It may be surprising to learn that the brain’s intrinsic, ongoing activity is the dominant mode of brain function, present and largely nonconscious whether we are daydreaming, sleeping, or engaged in the full range of human behaviors. Intrinsic activity is easily seen in the ongoing electrical activity of the brain, where extensive averaging is needed to separate evoked activity from intrinsic activity. Reinforcing its dominant role in brain function is the fact that it accounts for well over 90% of the enormous cost of brain function. A productive discussion of creativity must, therefore, take into account the role of intrinsic activity. Fortunately, intrinsic activity is highly organized, a feature highlighted by the recent discovery of the brain’s default mode network (DMN) that serves a dominant role in the overall organization of intrinsic activity. The relationship between the DMN and memory-related structures such as the hippocampus has the hallmark of how an internal model of the environment is built and maintained, which is critical for prediction, imagination, and creativity. More generally the DMN is concerned with our internal mental state (i.e., an egocentric perspective) whereas the networks with which it interacts offer an allocentric perspective. It is at this interface between the egocentric and allocentric perspective that the comfort one has with risk-taking, a necessary component of the creative process, is adjudicated. Exploring the many facets of the DMN’s role in the intrinsic activities of the brain will likely yield new insights into the creative process.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on default mode network, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The default mode network in cognition: a topographical perspective | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The default mode network: where the idiosyncratic self meets the shared social world | 2021 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas | 2010 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cooperation between the default mode network and the frontal–parietal network in the production of an internal train of thought | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |