Brain “under the jazz”

When jazz musicians improvise, areas that are responsible for self-censorship and inhibition of nerve impulses are turned off in their brain, and instead, areas that open the way for self-expression are turned on.

A companion study at Johns Hopkins University, which was attended by volunteer musicians from the Peabody Institute, and which used the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) method, shed light on the mechanism of creative improvisation that artists use in everyday life. Continue reading →