Click image to watch Dr. Charles Limb's TED Talk on creativity and improvisation
The brain is one of the most intricate organs known to man. In fact it is the most technical piece of equipment there is and scientists believe that we are only scraping the surface of its capabilities. Doctors can pretty much pinpoint the areas of the brain that help us brush our teeth, type on a computer, read a book and cook pasta, but some of us have the gift of be able to create something out of nothing and that obviously doesn’t use the same synapses as other daily routines.
Inspired by jazz music and the sporadic solos artists would jam out, Dr, Charles Limb started to search the brain for the magic that is creativity. Even though his case studies are in their very early stages, he has already found evidence that spontaneous outbursts of creativity rely on the ability to switch between different lobes of the brain at the bat of an eye. Like any good science professional, Dr. Limb knows that to really find answers, his studies need to diversify their scope of interest. So the next natural step from jazz music was Hip Hop where the art of freestyling on the mic requires incredible talent to build rhyming verse upon verse out of thin air. This TED Talk with Dr. Limb highlights what he has found out.
Click here for a link to an interview with Dr. Charles Limb where he discusses his breakthrough in neuro-science.
“Actually, A Class said an interesting thing to me. We were finishing a study, and I asked him in a post-study interview, “Is there any last thing you want to say?” And he turned real serious and he said, “Hip-hop has a bad reputation. Just give us a chance. We’re really good people and we have a lot to say.””
