Analysing the creating brain - neural mechanisms of improvisation

by Fredrik Ullen (KI)

Tuesday 25 Jan 2011, 13:30 → 14:00 Europe/Stockholm

122:026

Creativity can be generically defined as the ability to produce work that is at the same time novel and meaningful. Here, I will discuss findings from three fMRI studies where we study neural mechanisms underlying creative acts, using musical improvisation as an ecologically valid model behavior. In the first study, we identify brain regions specifically involved in the generation of new musical ideas during improvisation by contrasting improvisation with reproduction of previously created improvisations. Brain regions involved in musical creation included dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, rostral premotor areas and cortex around the left temporo-parietal junction. Secondly, we studied the neural control of improvisation of melodic and rhythmic structures. We found a dissociation in the premotor cortex in that presupplementary and rostral lateral premotor areas were preferentially involved in the improvisation of rhythmic and melodic aspects of an improvisation, respectively. Earlier studies have found similar dissociations for the perception and production of movement sequences, suggesting that common circuitry is involved in perception, production and free generation. Thirdly, we compared musical improvisation with free generation in a pseudo-random task. We found a substantial overlap in brain activity between these tasks, indicating that neural mechanisms involved in musical improvisation can be utilized for free generation in other modalities as well.