Drexel University researchers reveal the brain’s process during creative flow by exploring the inaccessible area of brain activity connected to high creativity. The team’s research in Neuropsychologia discovered that the loss of conscious control and complex psychological mechanisms that result from extensive expertise in an activity are what fuel creative flow.
Csikszentmihalyi, a famous psychologist, called this state of flow the source of joy, creativity, and determination. The study of 32 jazz guitarists aged 18–55 found that experience improves a network of creative brain regions. Removing conscious control raises the system to the top of the hierarchy, causing flow.
The research casts doubt on the conventional notion of hyperfocus and suggests drifting like a boat on the water. The researchers used high-density EEGs to analyse brain activity during improvisations and found that more experienced guitarists had more frequent and powerful creative flows.
However, Creativity Research Lab director John Kounios emphasises “expertise-plus-release” creative flow. Kounios’ research has practical applications because it identifies new strategies for teaching creative thinking and shows how to achieve flow states by combining expertise with the ability to let go of conscious control. The key to creative flow is balancing expertise with letting go. Thus, mastering music theory, arithmetic and physics, computer code, or fiction writing requires a balance between profound mastery and letting go to uncover creativity.
