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(2009) Rationalität der Kreativität?, Wiesbaden, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Creative innovation

insights from neurobiology and economics and their implications for social decision-making

Michael Roßbach

pp. 13-29

Creative innovation is defined as the ability to understand and express novel orderly relationships. Novelty can be understood as the coalescence of any two or more different entities or thoughts, and creativity involves many complex processes such as preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. High levels of general intelligence, domain-specific knowledge and special skills are important and necessary components of creative behaviour. Some researchers propose that, beyond intelligence, there must also be "wisdom" which evaluates novel ideas according to their appropriateness. Recent studies consider creativity as a series of complex cognitive processes followed by some sort of process that is not precisely known.Neuroanatomic studies suggest that creativity is located in the lobes of the brain, where specific knowledge or portions of specific skills are stored. More "talented" individuals might show alterations in specific regions of the neocortical architecture. Knowledge, specific skills and intelligence do not suffice to ensure creative innovation. The development of alternative solutions or divergent thinking is a critical element of creative innovation and clinical studies as well as functional imaging suggest that the frontal lobes are involved in these activities. These lobes are connected with regions where knowledge is stored and perception takes place. Important for the development of alternative solutions, these connections could selectively support or inhibit portions of the neocortex.Although extensive knowledge and divergent thinking are key components of creativity, they alone are not sufficient for creative thinking as it probably requires the interconnection of different forms of knowledge which are stored. Finding this thread probably requires the interconnection of different forms of knowledge which are stored in various compartments or cortical modules and have not previously been associated. Creative innovation may result when regions not ordinarily closely connected start to communicate with each other. Also, neurotransmitters may play a role for creative perception, since creativity often occurs during low levels of arousal and many persons with a depression are creative. High levels of neurotransmitters are produced by high rates of neuronal activity in specific regions. However, low levels of a neurotransmitter cause intrinsic neuronal activation in the brain with an increase in the size of distributed concept representations and co-activation across modular networks. As the primary cortical region, the frontal lobes control systems relevant to divergent thinking. The brain of creative persons may be capable of storing extensive specialized knowledge in a specific cortical region. These persons may be capable of frontally mediated divergent thinking and may have a specific ability to modulate their information storage system in such a way that their cerebral levels of neurotransmitters vary upon and during creative thinking or innovation – which results in the discovery of novel orderly relationships and connections in a perception matrix.This perception matrix allows us to live in a highly complex environment where some of our most important decisions are made in the context of (social) interactions. Neuroscience is capable of describing decision-making processes in the context of social interactions, creativity and learning by combining behavioural paradigms from economics (e.g. game theory) with a variety of methods from psychology and neuroscience.Generally, creativity is considered an attribute related to psychology, arts, and religion. To a much lesser degree it is associated with science. While the meaning of creativity seems to be intuitively clear, its definition appears to be quite complicated. Practically, one could define creativity as the ability to create and produce something useful that did not exist before and is characterized by originality, imagination and expressiveness. Creativity refers to the invention of new approaches and ideas for problem solving; innovation means applying these ideas to a specific problem. With creative innovation one can address the process ranging from the discovery of a new idea to its application to a new set of problems or within a strategic set of actions. For a scientist, creative innovation consists of the recognition of a problem and the formulation of a hypothesis followed by evaluation (verification and falsification). Creative innovation implies seeing what everyone has seen and thinking in a way no one else has thought before. Certainly, scientists try to find out which processes drive creative innovation – several factors play a significant role: The environment, available resources, and the social context of individuals are as important as their anatomic predispositions. A passion to create is also crucial. According to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "we see only what we know" (Eckermann 1829/2006). Creative innovation implies taking a risk, i.e., allowing new ideas to grow, testing them, discarding them, develop them further on them and accepting frustration. "Determination, persistence and stubbornness are the most important components of research and discovery" (Toledo-Pereyra 2007). Creativity thrives on freedom, the freedom to explore new thoughts and ideas. As Werner Heisenberg remarked, "Asking the right question is frequently more than half the solution to the problem" (Heisenberg 1958: 35). In a modern society and in the natural sciences, knowledge and creativity form the basis of progress and success. Innovations do not always require new products; they can also consist of modifications of known and already existing devices or of a new flow of information.

Publication details

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-531-91680-4_2

Full citation:

Roßbach, M. (2009)., Creative innovation: insights from neurobiology and economics and their implications for social decision-making, in S. A. Jansen, E. Schröter & N. Stehr (eds.), Rationalität der Kreativität?, Wiesbaden, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, pp. 13-29.

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