Jazz and the brain

A rather fascinating writeup describes attempts to deconstruct creativity in the brain by studying … jazz musicians!

“There were a lot of constraints,” [researcher Charles] Limb said. “Some were ergonomic. The musicians would lie on their back in a tube, which came up to their shoulders. There was a coil around their head. They were looking up at a mirror, which looks at another mirror, which pointed at their thighs, where their keyboard sat. So they were able to see their hands on the plastic keyboard.”
Even for musicians used to playing for drunken nightclub patrons, those are difficult conditions — especially since each stayed in that position for about 75 minutes. But Limb had no problem recruiting six professional players to take part.

“The subjects were beyond enthusiastic,” he reported. “Jazz musicians are a pretty introspective bunch. They found the notion that we could image their brain while we were jamming pretty cool.”

I’m assuming he means while they were jamming — the musicians, not the scientists.

Anyhoo, as I read it they found, via their pictures of brain activity, a sort of suppression of the part of the brain where “self-evaluation” occurs, whereas another part of the brain associated with the “need to achieve” is active.

All the usual caveats that this hardly amounts to a creativity flowchart. But still. As one of the researchers puts it: “The de-freakification of musical talent could be very powerful.”