This phenomenon has encouraged sweeping claims about mind enhancement, and some websites even went as far as calling the illusion a “digital drug”. One phenomenon that has been suspected to propagate creativity is known under the name of “binaural beats”, an auditory illusion that can be considered a kind of cognitive or neural entrainment ( Vernon, 2009 Turow and Lane, 2011). If so, factors or techniques that are likely to modulate dopamine production or transmission could be suspected to have an impact on cognitive operations underlying creativity. Indeed, positive-going mood is accompanied by phasic changes in the production and availability of dopamine in the mesolimbic and nigrostriatal systems of the brain ( Ashby et al., 1999), which again is likely to facilitate cognitive search operations and related processes underlying creative behavior ( Akbari Chermahini and Hommel, 2010 Hommel, 2012). Based on the observation that schizophrenic patients, who suffer from an overdose of the neurotransmitter dopamine (for a review, see Davis et al., 1991), sometimes exhibit extraordinary creative performances ( Keefe and Magaro, 1980 Nelson and Rawlings, 2008), some authors have assumed a strong link between creativity and dopamine ( Eysenck, 1993). Accordingly, it was these two processes that we considered in the present study.īoth divergent and convergent thinking have been assumed to be influenced by positive mood (e.g., Baas et al., 2008 Davis, 2009), but the mechanism underlying this impact remains unclear. Together with insight (a possible sub-component of convergent thinking see Bowden et al., 2005), these are nowadays still considered the most important processes in creativity ( Dietrich and Kanso, 2010). Of all the processes involved in creativity, Guilford ( 1950, 1967) identifies divergent and convergent thinking as its two main ingredients. What can be said, though, is that many cognitive processes seem to be involved, and that sub-functions underlying creativity depend on both state ( Baas et al., 2008 Davis, 2009) and trait ( Akbari Chermahini and Hommel, 2010) characteristics. It is thus not surprising that there is no single, widely accepted definition of creativity. Unfortunately, however, research into creativity is rather cluttered and mechanistic models about how creativity might work are not available ( Dietrich and Kanso, 2010). This suggests that binaural beats, and possibly other forms of cognitive entrainment, are not suited for a one-size-fits-all approach, and that individual cognitive-control systems need to be taken into account when studying cognitive enhancement methods.Ĭreativity is an important skill in the human cognitive repertoire, it is useful in art and science and essential in day-to-day life. Individuals with low EBRs mostly benefitted from alpha binaural beat stimulation, while individuals with high EBRs were unaffected or even impaired by both alpha and gamma binaural beats. Results showed that binaural beats, regardless of the presented frequency, can affect divergent but not convergent thinking. Dopamine levels in the striatum were estimated using spontaneous eye blink rates (EBRs). Participants completed a divergent and a convergent thinking task to assess two important functions of creativity, and filled out the Positive And Negative Affect Scale-mood State questionnaire (PANAS-S) and an affect grid to measure current mood. Binaural beats were presented at alpha and gamma frequency. We aimed to investigate whether binaural beats affect creative performance at all, whether they affect divergent thinking, convergent thinking, or both, and whether possible effects may be mediated by the individual striatal dopamine level. In the current study we hypothesized that creativity can be influenced by means of binaural beats, an auditory illusion that is considered a form of cognitive entrainment that operates through stimulating neuronal phase locking. This suggests that creativity could be enhanced by interventions that either modulate the production or transmission of dopamine directly, or affect dopamine-driven processes. Human creativity relies on a multitude of cognitive processes, some of which are influenced by the neurotransmitter dopamine.
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