The Innovating Brain

The Innovating Brain

The human brain is organized into dynamic, often anticorrelated, functional networks. Complex cognitive functions such as innovation are the product of interconnectivity between several of these networks.

Your Brain Is A Network Of Networks.

In my post Integration in the Brain, I describe how distributed brain regions dynamically interact to produce cognitive functions. These large-scale networks play a particular role in complex processes such as human behavior and the emergence of maturity. At least 15 such large-scale brain networks have been identified so far. Some extend into your gut and intestines, receiving information via neurotransmitters. Some form only with time. Others change activity with age. Just like three primary colors can be combined to produce many colors and shades, these networks have infinite expressions of cognition. In this post, I will explore some of these networks and how they impact us individually and collectively, and some of the cognitive functions they produce when interacting with each other.

The Default Network.

Your Brain Is Prosocial.

Your brain is wired to seek and promote social acceptance and friendship. How can science be so sure of this? Well, most networks are either more or less active, depending on the mental tasks. Driving in a new town might require your attention, whereas driving your usual route home, you might be performing on autopilot. Scientists wondered, what state does the brain return to once the active engagement is no longer required? What is the brain’s default mode? And what occurs in this default mode? Let me introduce you to your brain’s default mode network (DN), the network that your brain activates whenever all other mental tasks have been completed.

Social Cognition Means Understanding People.

The brain’s free time is devoted to thinking socially. Social cognition is focused on self-related thinking, thinking about others, and thinking about the relationship of ourselves to others. All this social thinking is geared towards processing social information, making sense of our experiences, and priming us for social life. We tend to interpret everything according to its possible social relevance. We see thinking, feeling minds everywhere – two triangles moving next to a circle within a square become two triangles cornering the circle in a room.

Social Cognition Requires Imagination.

The default mode network is indispensable to the social understanding of beliefs, needs, desires, or goals. It is implicated in emotional perception, empathy, theory of mind, morality, and remembering the past and planning the future. The default network actively decodes the intentions of others. Imagination plays a central role in this network, which is also called the Imagination Network. People who activate this network more often are more intuitive and faster in analyzing any social situation. Our ability to understand what is going on in the minds of others is central to becoming more socially connected.

Solving Complex Problems.

The mind tunes out information that isn’t relevant. Faced with a problem, this behavior is often unconsciously and automatically applied to problem-solving. A better approach is taking some downtime and giving the imagination network a chance to work its magic. Insights often bubble up from nowhere when your mind is wandering! The default mode plays a crucial role in innovation in creativity. Together with the central executive network and the salience network, they consolidate new knowledge, make new connections, and imagine new possibilities. We will dive into the other two networks in a moment after looking at how to activate and regulate the default mode.

Downtime Activates The Default Mode.

As this is the state the brain returns to whenever all other mental tasks have been completed, this mode is activated by no longer activating any of the others – it is the result of downtime, of unstructured time with no goals in mind and no focus attention. Downtime is different from distraction. Watching TV might bring a little recuperation by temporarily distracting from issues in other areas, but following a storyline or even just a dialog is still focused attention. Downtime is more than zoning out; it is about letting your mind wander but without a goal. Going to the gym and working towards a goal, or even meditating and focusing on the present moment, don’t qualify as downtime.

Meditation Regulates The Default Mode.

On the other hand, it is also possible that the default mode takes overhand, we get lost in daydreaming, and our ability to focus on tasks is hampered. It becomes necessary to reduce the brain’s self-referential activity so that the brain can concentrate on the tasks at hand. In this case, meditation has reduced self-related thinking and mind wandering more than any other task. It is also wise to strengthen the activation of the central executive network, which we will look at next.

The Central Executive Network.

Your Brain Prioritizes Tasks.

Playing through various options in our brain before going about them is convenient. The last flight is in two hours, but I need one hour to the airport and need to be checked in two hours before? Playing this scenario in my mind lets me know that I won’t make that flight. I don’t need to spend an hour traveling to the airport to figure this out. Imagining can be pretty practical. But in the end, when your body needs energy, the brain will make sure you don’t just dream about eating the delicacies from your last overseas trip but go out and still your hunger.

The Brain Pays Most Attention To Unfinished Tasks.

Inspiring goals can awaken a remarkable capacity to override our impulses and habits. We can make choices that conflict with other more immediate needs, like passing up on a party to study. The central executive network is involved whenever we need to clarify competing priorities and make decisions on resources and focus. It oversees our ability to align our behavior with our goals and is crucial for understanding the benefits and risks of multitasking and managing priorities. This network is often referred to as the control network; it is involved whenever we think through a problem to a solution or use working memory to make sense of new information. If there aren’t enough resources to attend to them, they all suffer. Pursuing numerous goals fragments our attention, as needs must be met before we can let our mental capacity roam.

Tasks At Hand Have Priority Over Downtime.

The default and central executive networks are anticorrelated – they work in a see-saw relationship by diverting blood flow to one or the other of the respective regions. One broadens the perspective and the other narrows to a focus. They cannot be active at the same time. Research has shown that the more engaged the control network, the less involved the imagining network is. As we all know, the human attention span can be incredibly short. Focus requires building, and indeed, the higher the connectivity within the central executive network, the more sustained the ability to focus. Responsible for the shifting is a third network, the salience network. It acts like a switch that determines which network is activated.

The Salience Network.

We Notice What Is Relevant.

We are constantly bombarded with massive amounts of sensory information. The salience network oversees choosing which sensations we pay attention to and ignore. We have ten times more neurons going from the brain to the eyes than from the eyes to the brain – we are ten times better equipped to tell the eyes what to look for than for the eyes to tell us what they are seeing! The attentional searchlight metaphor is backward: The brain isn’t brightening the light on stimuli of interest; it is lowering the lights on everything else. This might sound like a minute difference, but it makes a massive difference to how you handle overriding this feature – more on that in a future article on repertoire building.

Switching Attention.

The salience network constantly monitors internal and external information and determines which information is most relevant moment by moment. Just like it can make something of interest more noticeable in the stream of sensory input, it can also determine whether the current situation requires focus or a broadening of attention. It is the switch that directs power as deemed necessary.

Innovating Is The Interplay Of These Networks.

The connectivity within and between these three networks and the speed at which they interact are reliable predictors of how creative a person is. Broadening our attention is inclusive and opens us up to possibilities. Narrowing our attention collapses the world into distinctiveness and certainty. High connectivity and speedy switch between the two supports forming unrelated combinations. We increasingly see different worlds overlap and can draw other connections.

Thinking And Innovating.

Relational thinking is at the heart of the prosocial activity of the default network that is also responsible for imagining. Categorical thinking is akin to the focused control of the central executive network, and integrative thinking occurs through a fast-switching salience network with high interconnectivity. In my post on Learning, Innovating, and Integrating, I elaborate more on these forms of thought, their impact on creativity, and how to strengthen the various forms of thinking. As you can see, none of them is preferential to another; it needs their interplay.

Strengthening The Interplay.

The interplay of these networks is about improvising, and practicing improvisation has indeed been linked to an increase in creativity, among other things. Improvisational theater requires players to create acts on the spur. Researchers identified several characteristics that enhance creativity during the sessions, such as: accepting and building on the contribution of others, the deepening empathy, and the tolerance of uncertainty. While I recommend you join a local open session and experience improv for yourself, you can also practice your improvisational muscles by other means. Playing music, especially improvised music such as jazz, or dancing, again, especially the jazz-related dance forms work well, or just speaking from the heart. There are many ways you can enhance the creative interplay.