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33 - A Look Back at Pioneering Theories of the Creative Brain

from Part IV - Novel Combinatorial Forms of the Imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2020

Anna Abraham
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Summary

A few brave researchers ventured into the arena of creative cognition, with three in particular – Kenneth Heilman (2003), Arne Dietrich (2004), and Alice Flaherty (2005) – putting forth specific theoretical constructs amenable to empirical research. These theories emerged at the front end of a large body of neuroimaging research regarding brain correlates of creative cognition emerging in the early part of the twenty-first century. Hundreds of studies followed these pioneers’ thoughtful attempts to isolate creative capacity within brain structure and function. Two major questions are addressed: (1) How did their theories hold up in light of empirical data? (2) Do their theoretical constructs have implications for the nascent hypothesizing around imagination ability?

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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