The Cambridge Handbook of the Neuroscience of Creativity

This volume represents the most authoritative overview of how the brain gives rise to creativity in all of its many forms.

Rex E. Jung (Edited by), Oshin Vartanian (Edited by)

9781316602102, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 January 2018

566 pages, 16 b/w illus.
25.4 x 17.8 x 2.4 cm, 1.2 kg

'If your tastes favor basic neural and cognitive mechanisms of creativity, then you would be hard-pressed to find a better compendium than this one.' Aaron Kozbelt, Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture

Historically, the brain bases of creativity have been of great interest to scholars and the public alike. However, recent technological innovations in the neurosciences, coupled with theoretical and methodological advances in creativity assessment, have enabled humans to gain unprecedented insights into the contributions of the brain to creative thought. This unique volume brings together contributions by the very best scholars to offer a comprehensive overview of cutting edge research on this important and fascinating topic. The chapters discuss creativity's relationship with intelligence, motivation, psychopathology and pharmacology, as well as the contributions of general psychological processes to creativity, such as attention, memory, imagination, and language. This book also includes specific and novel approaches to understanding creativity involving musicians, polymaths, animal models, and psychedelic experiences. The chapters are meant to give the reader a solid grasp of the diversity of approaches currently at play in this active and rapidly growing field of inquiry.

Introduction Rex E. Jung and Oshin Vartanian
Part I. Fundamental Concepts: 1. Creative ideas and the creative process: good news and bad news for the neuroscience of creativity Dean Keith Simonton
2. Homeostasis and the control of creative drive Alice W. Flaherty
3. Laterality and creativity: a false trail? Michael C. Corballis
4. The neural basis and evolution of divergent and convergent thought Liane Gabora
Part II. Pharmacology and Psychopathology: 5. Stress, pharmacology, and creativity David Q. Beversdorf
6. Functional neuroimaging of psychedelic experience: an overview of psychological and neural effects and their relevance to research on creativity, daydreaming, and dreaming Kieran C. R. Fox, Cameron C. Parro and Kalina Christoff
7. A heated debate: time to address the underpinnings of the association between creativity and psychopathology? Simon Kyaga
8. Creativity and psychopathology: a relationship of shared neurocognitive vulnerabilities Shelley H. Carson
Part III. Attention and Imagination: 9. Attention and creativity Darya L. Zabelina
10. Internally directed attention in creative cognition Mathias Benedek
11. The forest versus the trees: creativity, cognition and imagination Anna Abraham
12. A common mode of processing governing divergent thinking and future imagination Reece P. Roberts and Donna Rose Addis
Part IV. Memory and Language: 13. Going the extra creative mile: the role of semantic distance in creativity theory, research, and measurement Yoed N. Kenett
14. Episodic memory and cognitive control: contributions to creative idea production Roger E. Beaty and Daniel L. Schacter
15. Free association, divergent thinking and creativity: cognitive and neural perspectives Tali Marron and Miriam Faust
16. Figurative language comprehension and laterality in Autism Spectrum Disorder Ronit Saban-Bezalel and Nira Mashal
Part V. Cognitive Control and Executive Functions: 17. The costs and benefits of cognitive control for creativity Evangelia G. Chrysikou
18. Creativity and cognitive control in the cognitive and affective domains Andreas Fink, Corinna Perchtold and Christian Rominger
19. Associative and controlled cognition in divergent thinking: theoretical, experimental, neuroimaging evidence, and new directions Emmanuelle Volle
Part VI. Reasoning and Intelligence: 20. Creativity in the distance: the neurocognition of semantically distant relational thinking and reasoning Adam Green
21. Network dynamics theory of human intelligence Aki Nikolaidis and Aron K. Barbey
22. Training to be creative: the interplay between cognition, skill learning, and motivation Indre V. Viskontas
23. Intelligence and creativity from the neuroscience perspective Emanuel Jauk
Part VII. Individual Differences: 24. The genetics of creativity: the underdog of behavior genetics? Davide Piffer
25. Structural studies of creativity measured by divergent thinking Hikaru Takeuchi and Ryuta Kawashima
26. Openness to experience: insights from personality neuroscience Oshin Vartanian
27. Creativity and the aging brain Kenneth M. Heilman and Ira S. Fleischer
Part VIII. Artistic and Eesthetic Processes: 28. The neuroscience of musical creativity David Bashwiner
29. Artistic and aesthetic production: progress and limitations Malinda J. McPherson
30. Polymathy: the resurrection of renaissance man and the renaissance brain Claudia Garcia-Vega and Vincent Walsh.

Subject Areas: Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Psychology [JM], Society & social sciences [J]