Neural bases of creativity
Homo Sapiens is an extraordinary species that differs from the vast majority of living beings by its impressive cognitive abilities. More precisely, executive functions in humans are highly developed and allow us to plan long-term future goals, adapt rapidly to a changing environment, act collectively, and innovate and create artwork. Creative solutions to timely challenges are very much needed today, such as a sustainable ecological transition, open educational methods or the improvement of autonomous robots to increase decent work rates for humans. Creativity is a core component of our ability to promote change and cope with it, yet its neural bases are still poorly understood and a consensus model of the underlying cognitive mechanisms has not been reached. This absence of model curbs the possibility to improve creativity in humans, as individuals or groups.
The general objective of my research project called "CreHack', financed by MSCA is to decipher some of the cognitive and neural processes of creative thinking through the development of a new neuro-computational model.
The first study of this project has just published, and the second study is currently submitted, the preprint is here. More information on the results can be found here.
The effect of the lockdown on everyday creativity
Lockdown and pandemic crisis are not only new situations for us, forcing us to face new problems, but also a change in our way of life, work, and habits. For some, these exceptional circumstances have been able to stimulate creativity, by going beyond the usual framework, by offering more time availability, or by encouraging new creative topics. Conversely, in other cases, worrying, life events, difficulties related to work or practical conditions of confinement may have hampered creativity, or the expression of this creativity. We carried out an online survey to investigate the effect of the lockdown on everyday creativity. Results are available in Lopez-Persem, Bieth et al, Frontiers in Psychology 2022. A short video explaining the results is available in french here, and in English there.
Why people felt more creative during the first lockdown ?
Mainly because of time availability! But also, because they felt more inspired, and had to solve problems...
Creativity in the lab
I joined the CreaTeam in February 2020, to know more about our research as a team, please visit Emmanuelle Volle's website.
How do we study creativity in the lab? Check out this video to know more about it:
(in French, subtitles will be included soon)
CreativiteEdit2.mp4