HERE'S WHAT THE NEUROSCIENTIST WHO STUDIES THE
SCIENCE OF GENIUS FOUND WHEN SHE SCANNED THE BRAINS OF 13 OF TODAY'S BRIGHTEST
CREATIVE MINDS.
BY JANE PORTER
In 1963, Nancy Andreasen was the first female
tenure-tracked English professor at the University of Iowa. Soon after, her
first book about the poet John Donne was accepted by a publisher. Her career
was off to a smashing start, but she had a nagging feeling.
"Who would this book help?" she couldn't
stop herself from thinking. "What if I channeled the effort and energy I’d
invested in it into a career that might save people’s lives?"
Within a month, she enrolled in the medical school
at the University of Iowa. Today she is a leading neuroscientist, marrying her
love for literature and the arts with her fascination in how the brain works.
Andreasen studies what some call "the science of genius"--trying to
unpack the elements that make up the brightest creative minds. It's not a high
IQ that indicates creative genius, she's found. In her research, Andreasen has
explored the link between mental illness and creativity, finding a strong connection
between the two.
THERE IS A STRONG CONNECTION BETWEEN MENTAL ILLNESS
AND CREATIVITY.
In her latest study, which she recently wrote about
for the Atlantic, Andreasen scanned the brains of 13 of the most famous
scientists, mathematicians, artists, and writers alive today. Her subjects
included Fields Medalists, Pulitzer Prize winners, and six Nobel laureates.
Among them are filmmaker George Lucas, mathematician William Thurston, and
novelist Jane Smiley. Andreasen delved into their family and personal
histories, also studying the structural and functional characteristics of their
brains using neuroimaging.
The study was challenging given how hard it is to
pin down the creative process. "Creativity, of course, cannot be distilled
into a single mental process, and it cannot be captured in a snapshot--nor can
people produce a creative insight or thought on demand," she writes.
Andreasen had to find a way to study these creative
minds at work. She hooked them up to an MRI scan and gave them different word
association, picture association, and pattern recognition tasks. "You
cannot force creativity to happen--every creative person can attest to
that," writes Andreasen. "But the essence of creativity is making
connections and solving puzzles."
In her findings she has distilled some key patterns
in the minds of creative geniuses. They include:
CREATIVE PEOPLE LIKE TO TEACH THEMSELVES RATHER
THAN BE TAUGHT BY OTHERS.
Think of all the creative geniuses who were high
school drop-outs--Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg. Andreasen found that
her subjects were autodidacts--they preferred figuring things out
independently, rather than being spoon-fed information.
"Because their thinking is different, my
subjects often express the idea that standard ways of learning and teaching are
not always helpful and may even be distracting, and that they prefer to learn
on their own," she writes.
MANY CREATIVE PEOPLE LOVE BOTH THE ARTS AND THE
SCIENCES.
There's a mentality out there that you have to
choose between either the arts or the sciences in your studies and career. But
Andreasen found that some of the greatest creative minds are polymaths, sharing
a love for both.
"The arts and the sciences are seen as
separate tracks, and students are encouraged to specialize in one or the
other," writes Andreasen. "If we wish to nurture creative students,
this may be a serious error."
CREATIVE PEOPLE PERSIST AGAINST SKEPTICISM AND
REJECTION.
When you're coming up with new unheard-of ideas,
you're pushing against the status quo. Rejection and skepticism are inevitable.
It's what you do in the face of those that matters most.
Andreasen found that creative geniuses are
resilient when presented with such skepticism. "They have to confront
doubt and rejection," she writes. "And yet they have to persist in
spite of that, because they believe strongly in the value of what they
do."
What this persistence might breed, however, is
psychic pain, says Andreasen, which can manifest as depression or anxiety.
CREATIVE GENIUSES HAVE CRAPPY IDEAS TOO.
Creative people have lots of ideas, but that
doesn't mean all of them are worth pursuing. "Part of what comes with
seeing connections no one else sees is that not all these connections actually
exist," writes Andreasen. Still, a willingness to go after those ideas--to
try them out, to resist the skepticism of others around you in order to find
out if they are great, is essential.
As one of Andreasen's subjects, a scientist, told
her: “Part of creativity is picking the little bubbles that come up to your conscious
mind, and picking which one to let grow and which one to give access to more of
your mind . . . then have that translate into action.”
