Is creativity primarily a function of the right brain? A recent meta-analytic study confirms the importance of activation of the right hemisphere in creative tasks. The research, conducted by a team of European scientists in Germany and the Netherlands, examined 52 independent studies with a total of 5601 participants, and found that activation of the right hemisphere was greater than that of the left hemisphere in an assortment of tasks involving creativity. Specific areas of the brain hemispheres were not part of this analysis. The authors suggest that the right hemisphere (or non-dominant hemisphere) is specialized for certain types of information processing that may enhance creativity, such as a big-picture (rather than a detailed) thinking style and the ability to interpret novel metaphors. While a body of research has suggested that the left hemisphere is specialized for processing verbal rather than pictorial information, the current analysis found that the right hemisphere was actively involved in completing both verbal and pictorial creativity tasks. So continue to stimulate that right hemisphere!
References:
Mihov, K.M., Denzler, M., & Förster, J. (2010). Hemispheric specialization and creative thinking: A meta-analytic review of lateralization of creativity. Brain and Cognition, 72, 442–448.
