Home / Social Sciences / Psychology / Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation

Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation

AUTHOR
Price
€24.30
€27.00 -10%
Upon request
Dispatched within 15 - 25 days.

Add to wishlist

What is the nature of human creativity? What are the brain processes behind its mystique? What are the evolutionary roots of creativity? How does culture help shape individual creativity? Creativity: The Human Brain in the Age of Innovation by Elkhonon Goldberg is arguably the first ever book to address these and other questions in a way that is both rigorous and engaging, demystifying human creativity for the general public. The synthesis of neuroscience and the humanities is a unique feature of the book, making it of interest to an unusually broad range of readership. Drawing on a number of cutting-edge discoveries from brain research as well as on his own insights as a neuroscientist and neuropsychologist, Goldberg integrates them with a wide-ranging discussion of history, culture, and evolution to arrive at an original, compelling, and at times provocative understanding of the nature of human creativity. To make his argument, Goldberg discusses the origins of language, the nature of several neurological disorders, animal cognition, virtual reality, and even artificial intelligence. In the process, he takes the reader to different times and places, from antiquity to the future, and from Western Europe to South-East Asia. He makes bold predictions about the future directions of creativity and innovation in society, their multiple biological and cultural roots and expressions, about how they will shape society for generations to come, and even how they will change the ways the human brain develops and ages.

Author: Goldberg Elkhonon
Publisher: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Pages: 296
ISBN: 9780190466497
Cover: Hardback
Edition Number: 1
Release Year: 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CHAPTER 1. THE AGE OF NOVELTY
CHAPTER 2. THE NEUROMYTHOLOGY OF CREATIVITY
From neuroorphans to neurofads
"Bad and useless"
Deconstructing innovation and creativity
Multiple creativities
CHAPTER 3. THE CONSERVATIVE BRAIN
How we know what we know
Mapping the world in the brain
How language found its home
"Isomorphic gradients"
Dementia with a silver lining?
CHAPTER 4. THE MERMAID AND THE LEGO MASTER (AND THE CAVE LION-MAN)
How is a new idea born?
Mechanics behind the metaphor - the macro view
The working memory conundrum
Phantoms in the brain - the micro view
CHAPTER 5. IT IS ALL ABOUT SALIENCE!
The salience circuit
Salient default
Salience, dopamine, and frontal arousal - or lack thereof
Salience diluted
Salience hijacked
CHAPTER 6. THE INNOVATING BRAIN
The novelty challenge
Hemispheres misunderstood
The novel and the routine
Wired for novelty
Driven by novelty
Novelty overdrive
CHAPTER 7. DIRECTED WANDERING AND THE INEFFABLE CREATIVE SPARK
No monkey business
The extreme frontal lobes
Dorsolateral bistability: Inspiration and perspiration
Lego master at work: creative perspiration
Lego master at rest: creative inspiration? Not yet
The brain's small world
Directed mental wondering: The creative spark
Iteration and selection
CHAPTER 8. IS THE BABOON CREATIVE?
Novelty in evolution
Human development and animal creativity
CHAPTER 9. THE CREATIVE MIND
A few worthy feats
Conform or not conform?
The theory of mind's mixed blessing
Creativity and intelligence
A few worthy tests
How bad is mad?
Creating minds
CHAPTER 10. THE CREATIVE BRAIN
A few worthy brains
Connectivity of creativity
Life in a small world
The advantages of having a coat
The advantages of not having a coat
Are "creativity genes" for real?
CHAPTER 11. EPILOGUE: WHAT'S NEXT?
Summing up and looking forward
Consuming innovation
Creating innovation
CHAPTER NOTES

INDEX

Elkhonon Goldberg, PhD, ABPP, is a scientist, clinician, and educator. He is Director of Luria Neuroscience Institute and Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurology, NYU School of Medicine. Goldberg is internationally renowned for his research in cognitive neuroscience and clinical neuropsychology. He has authored several widely acclaimed books which have been translated into many languages. He lectures worldwide. Goldberg is also a clinician with an active practice in neuropsychology.

You may also like

Newsletter

Subscribe to the newsletter to be the first to receive our new releases and offers
Your account Your wishlist