Synaptic Connectivity and the Creative Cycle

June 13th, 2006 Fred McVittie Posted in Creativity, Cycle, Illumination, Neuroscience |

Neurological maturity consists not only of the forging of new neuronal associations but also, significantly, of the ‘pruning’ of existing connections within the brain. Between early childhood and adolescence up to 50% of synapses are lost. This developmental period is also one in which forms of thinking change. Early childhood is characterised by thinking styles which incorporate plurality, intuition, play, and ‘magic’. After adolescence these styles cease to dominate and are largely replaced by the cognitive habits of linearity, causality, deduction, and logic.

These different thinking styles are also characteristic of different phases in the typical creative process. At the beginning of a process (or cycle within a process), when there is a need to identify a particular problem, construct criteria, locate resources, etc. linear logical styles are most appropriate. This mode of cognition is also most appropriate at the end of a process or cycle, when the onus is on verification, organisation (of data, of expression etc), and elaboration. During the interim phases, usually referred to as the ‘incubation’ and ‘illumination’ stages, another style of thinking is more conducive in which intuition, play, and ‘magic’ are available. This corresponds to a mode of thought particularly available prior to the ‘pruning’ of synaptic connections, a mode in which connectivity between ideas is maximised, along with a hightened and distributed sense of significance or meaningfulness across this maximal synaptic network.