Event

A seminar by Riccardo Viale, Professor of Methodology of Social Science at the Università di Milano - Bicocca, on "Brain Driven Bounded Creativity", bridging the humanities and neuroscience. A discussion on what the humanities can contribute to research in neuroscience will follow with the participation of Martha Farah, Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences and Director of the Center for Neuroscience and Society.

In this seminar, Professor Riccardo Viale analyses some of the neurocognitive procedural characteristics that bound the process of creativity. Among the various expressions of creativity, figurative art is preferred. It seems to involve more parts of the brain and psychological functions than other forms of creativity. In particular, he analyses the tendency to assign responsibility for creative thought to the right hemisphere and tries to understand why this is. He explains how a structure of the brain known as the Default Mode Network produces one of the characteristics of human creativity: that of being enhanced, above all, during periods when the mind wanders. Both results highlight a particular dynamic of creative thought linked to the unconscious spreading activation of neural networks. This neurobiological finding seems to correspond to the results of psychological research on incubation. In conditions where the mind wanders or is engaged in other tasks, there is an empirically controlled increase in creative capacity with regard to the target problem. This appears to be caused by an unconscious spreading activation of semantic networks. Lastly, the characteristics of bounded creativity linked to the implicit and unconscious dynamic of neurocognitive and perceptual limits is highlighted, also by examining the emotional and visual dimension of creativity in figurative art. To conclude, Prof. Viale shows how the unique structure of the brain has constrained the emergence of particular artistic styles and expressions.