Centre for Creative Technologies masterclass series: Neuroscience of Creativity

Creativity is a key skill with increasing relevance for contemporary and future societies. This seminar presents an overview of how the human brain affords us the ability to think creatively. We will: [1] examine the neural basis of the creative process as revealed through neuroimaging methods; [2] explore why people differ in levels of creative ability; and [3] evaluate creativity-enhancing interventions including brain stimulation, pharmacological agents, and behavioural changes. Beyond understanding the production of creative work, we will also consider the recognition of creativity and how it differs to intelligence from a neuroscientific perspective. Finally, we will review experimental evidence from the Cultural Evolution literature that suggests limiting factors to innovation due to how information is transferred intergenerationally and ways we might overcome any such psychological constraints on our creativity capacity.

Speaker Bio: Dr Jane Conway is an SFI-IRC Pathway Fellow and Honorary Research Lecturer in the School of Psychology, University of Galway. She is an experimental psychologist who focuses on higher order cognition in humans, specializing in the role of culture in shaping the mental processes that allow us to represent abstract features of the world. She directs the Scientific Arts Lab, an interdisciplinary group that studies the development of scientific concept literacy through creative practice.

Registration

Please register via Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/neuroscience-of-creativity-tickets-795300604517