Alpha brainwaves can help us think more creatively

Source: Xinhua| 2018-12-11 04:44:23|Editor: Chengcheng
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WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- A study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that a kind of brainwave could help people think out of the box.

Scientists at Queen Mary University of London and Goldsmiths, University of London found that higher levels of alpha brainwaves could enable people to come up with ideas which are further away from the obvious or well-known uses.

The human brain needs to suppress obvious ideas in order to reach the most creative ones, according to the scientists.

They found that alpha oscillations in the right temporal area of the brain could increase when individuals need to suppress misleading associations in creative tasks.

Stimulating the right temporal part of the brain in the alpha frequency increases the capability of inhibiting obvious links, according to the study.

The researchers applied an electrical current to the brain through a non-invasive technique called transcranial alternating current brain stimulation (tACS). Then they conducted experiments that looked at how the brain tackles a series of creative tasks such as finding words that link to one another.

Previous studies have shown that some people are more creative than others because they are able to avoid strong associations in order to reach more remote ones and this study demonstrated that the alpha brainwaves were crucially involved in this process.

The findings have implications for how we understand creativity and opens up potential ways of affecting the creative process.

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