Study suggests reason behind people showing increased creativity after brain injuries, disorders

new delhi: researchers have identified a brain circuit for creativity and suggested that people with brain injuries or neurodegenerative diseases -- in whom the circuit is affected -- may have increased creativity. "some people with neurologic diseases experience a new onset of creative behaviour and show specific patterns of damage that align with our creativity circuit," lead author julian kutsche, a research fellow at brigham and women's hospital, us. co-senior author isaiah kletenik, a neurologist at brigham and women's hospital, said, "we wanted to answer the questions, 'what brain regions are key for human creativity and how does this relate to the effects of brain injuries?'" the study, published in the journal of the american medical association (jama) network open, first looked at brain scans of 857 people to identify regions that help perform creative activities such as drawing, creative writing and making music. the brain scans were taken from a review of studies published between 2004 and 2019. the researchers then analysed data of patients who had changes in creativity due to brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases. the team found that brain regions involved in creative tasks are part of one common brain circuit, defined by a simultaneous reduced activity in the right frontal pole -- important for monitoring and rule-based behaviours. the reduced activity could align with the hypothesis that creativity requires shutting down the 'inner critic's' function, according to kletenik. "to be creative, you may have to turn off your inner critic to allow yourself to find new directions and even make mistakes," kletenik said. "these findings could help explain how some neurodegenerative diseases might lead to decreases in creativity while others may show a paradoxical increase in creativity," the author added. "brain regions activated by creativity tasks map to a brain circuit defined by negative functional connectivity to the right frontal pole. damage to this circuit aligned with changes in creativity observed in individuals with certain brain diseases, including paradoxical creativity increases," the authors wrote.====================abvp protests after students get exam paper on old syllabus in latur college latur: the akhil bharatiya vidyarthi parishad on thursday claimed students of the third year computer science course in a college in latur were given an exam paper based on the old syllabus, which inconvenienced students. the exam was held at ms bidve engineering college affiliated to dr. babasaheb ambedkar technological university (lonere) on wednesday."this is a serious matter that 79 students suffered due to the error of the college and university administration. action must be taken against those responsible," said abvp state vice president sushant ekorge.incharge principal virbhadra bale said an inquiry has been initiated and a solution will be found to ensure students are not at a loss.he said a message sent on the day of the exam about a new paper being provided was ignored.