RND, the neural network at the epicenter of human creativity: ‘Without it, we wouldn’t have any ideas’ | Health and Wellness

It’s a flow that doesn’t stop. A constant flow of ideas, memories, projections and images that moves freely, regardless of our desire to perform cognitive tasks. The default neural network (DNN), conceptualized in 2001 by Marcus E. Raichle, provides empirical support for the stream of consciousness that James Joyce expressed in the literature in Ulysses. And like the Irish author’s novel, RND – or its unstoppable flow – often seems disjointed and chaotic to us. According to several publications that have appeared in recent years, there is also a treasure trove of unpublished approaches and new horizons. There lies a spring on the autopilot from which genius is sometimes born. Perhaps we are talking about the nerve center of human creativity.

The most recent study on RND and creative thinking was published last June in the journal BrainJournal of Neuroscience, Oxford University Press. Ben Shofty, a neurosurgeon and professor at the University of Utah (USA), placed electrodes on 13 epileptic patients at specific points in the brain through which this network passes. His intention was not to stimulate these areas, but to inhibit them. “We don’t know how to make the brain work better, but we can use electrical currents to artificially shut down certain areas,” Shafti explains via video conference. Because the RND was administered during non-working hours, participants were asked to find different uses for everyday objects—a standard test for measuring creativity. The originality of the answers was significantly reduced compared to the usual situation, “when the brain is not changed,” he continues.

In 2022, Shofti has already published another study in Nature it pointed in the same direction. He states that his work “has established a direct cause-and-effect relationship, rather than just a correlation, between RND and creativity.” Before Shofti decided to install electrodes on his patients, other researchers, using so-called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), had concluded there was a clear connection between this network and the ability to invent new ways to use shoes or clips. “My main advantage is that I can manipulate the brain. “Most people study brain function with correlative methods: they set up an fMRI, ask people to perform a task, and certain areas light up.” The activation of RND when people think beyond the obvious has already been well demonstrated. We now also know that as it decreases, so does our ability to think.

The relationship between RND and divergent cognition also appears to be size dependent. In 2013, Simone M. Ritter and other authors found that people with more gray matter in areas corresponding to this network are better at coming up with alternative uses for common objects. Since then, Ritter has carefully researched the circumstances most conducive to creativity. She combines her academic work at Radboud University (Netherlands) with business consulting. And it combines a social perspective with a focus on each individual’s RND, which is encouraged through innovative methods: “We use virtual reality, for example, to have the subject progress through different stages until they reach a state of RND,” he explains. .

An important milestone in this field of neuroscience occurred in 2018 when Roger Beaty discovered – thanks to a study published in the journal PNAS— that creative ideas arise when there is a connection between the RND and two other brain networks: the salience network (which evaluates the importance of internal or external stimuli) and the executive network (which allows us to focus on a specific cognitive task). “There is a relationship between the degree of connectivity between these three networks and the degree to which people are able to diverge cognitively,” summarizes Beaty, who now co-ordinates the creativity and neuroscience laboratory at Pennsylvania State University in the US. In the absence of certainty, Beaty ponders the sequence that any sudden bright flash might follow on its journey through the brain. “RND would formulate the idea; the salience network will ignore it or not; and if it passes the filter, the manager will prepare it.”

Shofti does not dispute Beaty’s findings. In fact, both researchers began collaborating to analyze down to the millisecond a process that, according to the latter, “occurs at enormous speed.” But the neurosurgeon has no doubt that RND is the basis of everything. “It creates a continuous stream that sometimes syncs with the other two networks.” Beaty, for his part, prefers to wait for new research that will confirm the hypothesis of RND as the undoubted creative epicenter. In principle, he considers this very likely. Although, he clarifies, “there may be cases where this is not the case or the back-and-forth dynamics have not yet been discovered.”

Beaty points out that some studies have shown “great difficulty with imagination” experienced by people with RND lesions, which is “closely related to the memory we resort to to find something new.” And despite his caution, he’s upfront about the important role of RND, whether it’s helping us dream about our next trip or chart the astrophysical theory that will win us a Nobel Prize: “Without it, we probably wouldn’t have an idea.”

Shafti alludes to a curious phenomenon clearly identified in 2023 research that reveals our brain’s ability to redirect potential adversity. And this emphasizes the complexity of analyzing such a polymorphic and subjective concept as creativity. It turns out that many people with frontotemporal dementia develop an overwhelming need for plastic self-expression: “They draw a lot, some obsessively.” This neurodegenerative disease, Shofti emphasizes, “causes the breakdown of connections between the frontal and temporal lobes, which are the main nodes of the RND.” As the stream of consciousness stalls, Shafti continues, “creativity shifts to the later, more visual parts of the brain; It’s like a balance: one area shuts down and another becomes overactive.”

Lose focus

Some researchers are cautious before assigning such a dominant role to RND. Moreover, studies on this issue use limited measurement techniques and tend to consider a rather narrow concept of creativity. “I’m inclined to think that Beaty and Shofti are right, but it would seem daring to build a whole theory of creativity out of a problem that is itself a little strange: people don’t walk around thinking about what they could do with a single brick,” says John Kounios, professor of brain sciences at Drexel University (USA) and co-author of the study. Eureka Factor (no Spanish edition). The work focuses on those moments of cognitive revelation in which a problem seems suddenly solved. Or at least one in which we can come up with a tasty solution worth exploring.

Kounios reveals the ins and outs of the eureka moment. When this happens, there is a “sudden burst of high-frequency brain waves” preceded by a darkening of the visual cortex: “For a split second, you can’t see very well because your brain is filtering out distracting elements.” ” Moreover, the emergence of a (seemingly) great idea is followed by “activation of the reward system, the same one that turns on when you eat something tasty, have an orgasm, or take drugs.” In principle, completely viable phenomena that contribute to the feast of dopamine. “That’s why there are those who are passionate about composing songs or writing poetry, even if it doesn’t bring them a lot of money,” Kounios suggests with a smile on his lips.

In his latest publication, published last March, Kounios focuses on “the state of flow “creativity” of jazz musicians during improvisation. This occurs, the study concludes, when previously acquired mastery and the ability to let go converge. Kounios interprets his discovery as something of an advance in the connection between the neural networks—RND, salience, and performance—coined by Beaty. “If you have a lot of experience in a particular activity, such as playing jazz, perhaps that connection is no longer needed because a new network will develop in which creativity simply flows.”

If, despite the shadow areas that still loom when unleashing creativity, we recognize the importance of RND in generating new ideas, experts advise ways to dominate flow. “Sometimes you need to lose focus to be more creative, even if it sounds counterintuitive,” says Ritter. To do this, they help to play sports, walk in nature or meditate. “Anything that allows our mind to wander, because that’s when the best ideas come,” suggests Shafti.

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