跟读练习: The Neuroscience of Creativity - 通过视频学习英语口语

This little guy is a nematode worm - it’s transparent, about 1mm in length and one of the simplest animals with a nervous system.

And his name is Steve.

Steve does something quite curious... he doesn’t just follow food scents.

He also explores his environment – thoroughly.

As if he wants to know what else is out there.

This worm shows a basic form of curiosity.

And Steve does this even though he only has 383 brain cells or neurons… compared to the 86 billion neurons in your human brain.

Your brain is also curious, it’s constantly looking for the next new thing.

But unlike a worm, our desire for novelty has led us to innovate and create.

Our high levels of creativity are thanks to the unique makeup of our restless brains.

So what exactly makes your brain so creative?

Well, this mass of 86 billion neurons is organised in a pretty special way.

Roughly speaking, one group of neurons sense the environment, and another group react to it.

In most animal brains, there’s a hard-wired path from the sensing neurons to acting neurons.

In your human brain though, there are lots of paths connecting the two.

Way more than what we need to perform vital tasks.

So these surplus neurons form tangled networks that generate random, spontaneous thoughts.

And researchers are starting to pinpoint how these random thoughts become creative ideas.

In a 2016 study, researchers found that creativity seems to depend on the cooperation of two competing brain networks: one that generates spontaneous thoughts and the executive control center of the brain that governs everything else.

To produce new ideas, we start with a pool of random, free-flowing thoughts – those worthy of further exploration are then approved by executive control.

And then, when researchers asked people to plan an artwork, cooperation between these two networks went up.

And the effect was stronger in professional artists.

Virtually all other research points to a similar conclusion: That no one area of your brain is responsible for creative thought.

Rather, many interacting processes by large-scale brain networks work together to give birth to a great idea.

And a new theory suggests these brain networks seem to be doing three things: They bend what we see, break what we expect and finally, they blend things with...other things.

Your restless brain is full of great ideas – just waiting to be realised.

This is the first of a three part series on creativity.

Next up, can you become more creative?

If we all have this amazing machinery in our brains, why are some people more creative than others?