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Instead, the researchers found that when the musicians are attempting to express emotion during their creative process, parts of the brain involved in emotional expression are activated. These brain areas then strongly influence which parts of the brain’s wide “creativity network” are turned on, and how.

Limb, who is also a jazz saxophonist, has previously conducted research that found that musical improvisation deactivates a key brain region involved in planning and monitoring behavior — the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This suggested that the silencing of the DLPFC may be responsible for the artist’s ability to enter a “flow state” of deep absorption and free-flowing creativity. 

For the new study, the researchers wanted to investigate how emotions affected the brain’s ability to get into a flow state. To do so, they put jazz pianists inside a brain-scanning machine with a small keyboard, and asked them to improvise a melody to express either a positive emotion (based on an image of a woman smiling) or a negative emotion (on an image of the same woman looking sad). As a control, the musicians’ brains were also scanned while they were looking at emotional images but not improvising. 

The fMRI scans revealed that DLPFC deactivation was significantly greater when the musicians were trying to convey a positive emotion in their improvisations. When trying to express negative emotions, on the other hand, there was greater activation of the reward systems of the brain. 

The researchers concluded that it may be easier to get into “the zone” when creating happy music. Creating sad music also seems to be pleasurable for musicians, but in a different way. 

“Broadly, our study suggests a very basic role for emotions in how our brains function during creativity,” Limb said. “It appears that the nature of an emotion — whether it is positive or negative –has a significant impact on the mechanisms our brain uses for creative tasks when motivated by these emotions.”

While the findings are a step in the right direction, Limb emphasizes that the inner workings of the creative process remain largely a mystery to neuroscientists. In other words, even on a neurological level, creativity is messy.

Read more on the creative brain here:

• Why So Many Artists Are Highly Sensitive People
• This Science-Backed Trick Can Unlock Your Creativity In Just 5 Minutes
• The Surprising Upside To Going Through Hard Times

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