Slow Mind Can Be More Creative

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oi-Cara

By Cara

Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 15:23

Slow learners are tagged as dumb but a slow brain can nurture more creative ideas, says a new survey.

Rex Jung at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and his team discovered that creativity is associated with low levels of the chemical N-acetylaspartate, found in neurons and seems to promote neural health and metabolism.

But neurons constitute the brain's grey matter - the tissue long thought to be linked with thinking power, rather than creativity. Consequently, Jung is now focusing his creativity studies on white matter, which largely comprises the fatty myelin sheaths that wrap around neurons. Less myelin signifies the white matter has a lower "integrity" and transmits information more slowly.

Numerous recent studies have suggested that white matter of high integrity in the cortex, which is linked to higher mental function, means increased intelligence.
However, when Jung analysed the connection between white matter and creativity, he came across something very different.

In his research he saw that most creative people had lower white-matter integrity compared with to the less creative people.

According to Jung, creativity and intelligence can still go hand in hand. Each appears to be controlled by white matter in a different region. Thus, theoretically, there's no reason why someone might not have high integrity in the cortex, producing intelligence, but low integrity between the cortex and deeper brain regions, leading to creative thinking.