Rex Jung, research assistant professor in the School of Medicine’s neurosurgery department, connects the musicality recently demonstrated by Fred Hashimoto and Bill Miller with the neuroscience of creativity. He notes that structural changes that occur in the aging brain may reveal insights into creativity as people get older.
Photo: Rex Jung
“The aging brain loses myelin, the insulation for neurons that helps conduct brain impulses. It is my hypothesis that this demyelination creates an opportunity for creative capacity. As we age, thoughts and impulses have to find alternative pathways,” Jung said.
Jung said that while people lament the loss of cognitive function, they may find new activities through emerging strengths. “Fred Hashimoto’s saxophone playing and Bill Miller’s cantata composition demonstrate this hypothesis,” he said.
Jung said his mother took up 3-D quilt making in her retirement after years of working as a technical writer for IBM.
Older people develop a strong interest in travel, art and culture, he said. “They go to the symphony and galleries. They immerse themselves in art and culture as they age.” Some of this interest could be that the busyness in earlier adulthood prevents these pursuits, but he definitely sees a brain difference that helps creativity emerge. “It’s not an either or, but rather both. It’s common sense,” he said.
“As we age, we’re out from under the responsibility of creating for remuneration. It’s about enjoying the cognitive process,” he said.
Story by Carolyn Gonzales
Posted by scarr at December 14, 2009 04:00 PM