Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Elma Bašić
Professor Bogdan Draganski, native Bulgarian, is Consultant Neurologist at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland, Director of the neuroimaging laboratory LREN.
At the next Golden Drum Festival that will take place in Portorož on 17 – 18 of October, Professor Draganski will talk about if creativity has anything to do with the brain and if so, where exactly can we find this fountain of sparkling new ideas? Is creativity a truly human trait or can we find creative animals?
MM: When it comes to brains and the creative process, you are the one of the most eligible persons to give us answers on how to understand the sources of creativity in the human brain. Please tell us something where creativity comes from.
Bogdan Draganski: Extremely flattering, though I do not necessary qualify as most eligible person in the field given my publications track record. It is my scientific curiosity that motivates me to try understanding the neurobiological basis of such an abstract concept as creativity.
As usual, the controversy stems from terminology. Therefore, we have to deep dive into a discussion what exactly is creativity. Is it a feature of general cognitive ability and flexibility that we love to call intelligence and express in IQ units, maybe a “divine” inspiration coming from above or is it simply matter of training and exercise?! The experts converge on two basic characteristics of creativity – first, there is the ability to generate a novel, unusual and original idea; second – that this idea should be adequate and suited to the particular context or problem to solve. Another ambiguity comes from the divided opinions if creativity has to be confined to the domain of arts or can be extended also to science and craftsmanship.
As a scientist, I would prefer to have an objective and reliable metric of creativity. In this way we can assess statistically all these aspects of creativity that we are interested in and draw inferences about the factors modulating our creative abilities – be it age, gender, socio-cultural background, individual personality traits etc etc. Given the fact that creativity cannot be prompted – it is difficult to generate a strain of creative ideas on command, the study of creativity under laboratory conditions remains a challenge to master.
I am convinced, there is no single brain area where creativity is encoded – it is much more the sum of multiple regions united in networks, similar to a symphony orchestra that plays in harmony under the guidance of a skilled conductor.
MM: Can you tell us something about the three areas of the human brain, the Attentional Control Network, the Imagination Network, and the Attentional Flexibility Network that are used for creative thinking? What is their interaction it the brain network during the creative process?
Bogdan Draganski: Honestly, I was not even aware of two of the three networks that you mention here – the problem of terminology and different scientific approaches. Recent studies underscore the interplay between mind-wandering related brain areas and regions involved in the implementation and execution of a task – the healthy combination of creativity and pragmatism. On top of this, at least in a very recent brain imaging study, the scientists showed that these connections are stronger in professional artists compared with individuals with “ordinary” non-artistic occupation. The question about nature and nurture – if this is an effect of training or a trait that led them to become artists, is still open.
MM: Can an Artificial Intelligence agent also be creative too? what are your findings on this matter?
Bogdan Draganski: Up to very recently creativity was seen as purely human quality. Computers do not have a heart, they do not sport the mind-wandering that we use to think is needed for creativity. Developments in the domain of artificial intelligence (AI) have stunned the public with passable art work, music and books that also sells well. Is it time to give up? AI is better than us in chess, the GO game, shall we give up the last human bastion – creativity?!
We have already the paradigmatic example of the portrait of Edmond de Belamy created by the algorithms of the French arts-collective Obvious that sold for a substantial 6-digit sum on a Christie’s auction. How much of this art will come in our museums and homes is to be determined in few years…