Recess anyone?

Jonah Lehrer, Rhodes Scholar, contributing writer to Seed Magazine, Wired, and Radiolab, author of "How We Decide" and "Proust was a Neuroscientist" just published an interesting article on his blog, "The Frontal Cortex"

The article describes how and why we lose our child-like creativity. In an experiment with undergrads, those instructed to think like 7 year olds were far more creative than those who were given no age association. Most profound were those described as introverts.

As we age, our brains grow larger and denser. The prefontal cortex becomes responsible for creating focused attention and inhibiting errant thoughts. We trade off youthful imagination for better function.

One bit of interesting evidence is that jazz musicians would supposedly "de-activate" their prefontal cortexes before performing to prevent the brain from interfering and inspiring worry. They were free to be creative and imaginative.

Read the entire article here.