Course Syllabus

Description of Course

Prerequisites: One course in neuroscience, physiological psychology, or biological psychology at university level.

How do we understand creativity and the brain? This course asks you to explore and debate human creativity through neurobiological, cognitive, and psychological perspectives. Main topics include discussions of the definition of creativity; psychological and cognitive profiles of creative individuals and functional neuroanatomy of the creative processes; the neural correlates of creative thought; cognitive processes and lastly, cognitive strategies for optimizing creative output. Study tours within Denmark and Europe will provide the experiential foundation for further understanding theory and research in the field.

Faculty

Angela Mastropasqua: Ph.D. (Cognitive Neuroscience, Graduate School of Systemic Neuroscience, LMU Munich , 2020). M.Sc. (Psychology, University of Turin, 2013). B.A. (Psychological Sciences and Techniques, University of Bari, 2010). Research interest in higher brain functions studied with a multi-techniques approach, in particular combining non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) and neuroimaging. 

Readings

Required Textbooks (available at DIS library):

• Abraham, Anna - The Neuroscience of Creativity. Cambridge University Press. 2018.

Articles (on Canvas):

• Abraham, A. (2013). The promises and perils of the neuroscience of creativity. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00246
• Abraham, A., & Windmann, S. (2007). Creative cognition: The diverse operations and the prospect of applying a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Methods, 42(1), 38–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymeth.2006.12.007
• Andreasen, N. C. (2008). The relationship between creativity and mood disorders. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 10(2), 251–255. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2008.10.2/ncandreasen
• Bashwiner, D. M., Wertz, C. J., Flores, R. A., & Jung, R. E. (2016). Musical Creativity “Revealed” in Brain Structure: Interplay between Motor, Default Mode and Limbic Networks. Scientific Reports, 6(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep20482
• Beaty, R. E., Benedek, M., Silvia, P. J., & Schacter, D. L. (2016). Creative Cognition and Brain Network Dynamics. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(2), 87–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.10.004
• Beaty, R. E., Kenett, Y. N., Christensen, A. P., Rosenberg, M. D., Benedek, M., Chen, Q., Fink, A., Qiu, J., Kwapil, T. R., Kane, M. J., & Silvia, P. J. (2018). Robust prediction of individual creative ability from brain functional connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(5), 1087–1092. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1713532115
• Chen, Q., Beaty, R. E., & Qiu, J. (2020). Mapping the artistic brain: Common and distinct neural activations associated with musical, drawing, and literary creativity. Human Brain Mapping, 41(12), 3403–3419. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25025
• Conway, B. R., & Rehding, A. (2013). Neuroaesthetics and the Trouble with Beauty. PLOS Biology, 11(3), e1001504. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001504
• Dietrich, A. (2004a). Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the experience of flow. Consciousness and Cognition, 13(4), 746–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2004.07.002
• Dietrich, A. (2004b). The cognitive neuroscience of creativity. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11(6), 1011–1026. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196731
• Fink, A., Benedek, M., Unterrainer, H.-F., Papousek, I., & Weiss, E. M. (2014). Creativity and psychopathology: Are there similar mental processes involved in creativity and in psychosis-proneness? Frontiers in Psychology, 5. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01211
• Jung, R., Mead, B., Carrasco, J., & Flores, R. (2013). The structure of creative cognition in the human brain. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00330
• Kaufman, A. B., Butt, A. E., Kaufman, J. C., & Colbert-White, E. N. (2011). Towards a neurobiology of creativity in nonhuman animals. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 125, 255–272. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023147
• Kaufman, J. C. (2002). Dissecting the Golden Goose: Components of Studying Creative Writers. Creativity Research Journal, 14(1), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326934CRJ1401_3
• Kozbelt, A., Kaufman, S. B., Walder, D. J., Ospina, L. H., & Kim, J. U. (2014). The evolutionary genetics of the creativity-psychosis connection. In Creativity and mental illness (pp. 102–132). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139128902.009
• Laland, K., Wilkins, C., & Clayton, N. (2016). The evolution of dance. Current Biology, 26(1), R5–R9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.11.031
• May, J., Calvo-Merino, B., deLahunta, S., McGregor, W., Cusack, R., Owen, A., Veldsman, M., Ramponi, C., & Barnard, P. (2011). Points in Mental Space: An Interdisciplinary Study of Imagery in Movement Creation. Dance Research, 29, 404–432. https://doi.org/10.3366/drs.2011.0026
• Mullen Raymond, S. (2017). Neural Foundations of Creativity: A Systematic Review. Revista Colombiana de Psiquiatría, 46(3), 187–192.
• Peretz, I. (2006). The nature of music from a biological perspective. Cognition, 100(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2005.11.004
• Raichle, M. E. (2009). A brief history of human brain mapping. Trends in Neurosciences, 32(2), 118–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2008.11.001
• Schwartz, A. (2016). Movement: How the Brain Communicates with the World. Cell, 164, 1122–1135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.02.038
• Seeley, W. W., Matthews, B. R., Crawford, R. K., Gorno-Tempini, M. L., Foti, D., Mackenzie, I. R., & Miller, B. L. (2008). Unravelling Boléro: Progressive aphasia, transmodal creativity and the right posterior neocortex. Brain, 131(1), 39–49. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awm270
• Synnes, O., Romm, K. L., & Bondevik, H. (2021). The poetics of vulnerability: Creative writing among young adults in treatment for psychosis in light of Ricoeur’s and Kristeva’s philosophy of language and subjectivity. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 24(2), 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-020-09998-5
• Friederici (2013) The Brain Basis of Language Processing: From Structure to Function. Physiol Rev 91: 1357–1392, 2011. doi:10.1152/physrev.00006.2011
• Trimble, M., & Hesdorffer, D. (2017). Music and the brain: The neuroscience of music and musical appreciation. BJPsych International, 14(2), 28–31. https://doi.org/10.1192/S2056474000001720
• Vuust, P., Heggli, O. A., Friston, K. J., & Kringelbach, M. L. (2022). Music in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 23(5), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-022-00578-5

Approach to Teaching

This course will be taught using a combination of methods. There is a strong emphasis on participation and class discussions and while I am responsible for the overall structure of the class, all of us will contribute to the production of knowledge. 

Required Readings 

Guest Lectures

See Course Calendar for details.

Field Studies

See Course Schedule

Study Tours

Short Study Tour: Aarhus, Denmark

Long Study Tour: London, England

Policies

Attendance: You are expected to attend all DIS classes when scheduled.  If you miss a class for any reason, please contact the faculty no later than the day of the missed class. If you miss multiple classes the Director of Teaching and Learning, and the Director of Student Affairs will be notified and they will follow-up with you to make sure that all is well.  Absences will jeopardize your grade and your standing at DIS.  Allowances will be made in cases of illness or religious holidays, but in the case of multiple absences you will need to provide a doctor’s note.

Academic Honesty, Plagiarism, and Violating the Rules of an Assignment: DIS expects that students abide by the highest standards of intellectual honesty in all academic work. DIS assumes that all students do their own work and credit all work or thought taken from others.  Academic dishonesty will result in a final course grade of “F” and can result in dismissal. The students’ home universities will be notified. DIS reserves the right to request that written student assignments be turned in electronic form for submission to plagiarism detection software. See the Academic Handbook for more information, or ask your instructor if you have questions.

Policy on Late Papers: Late assignments will be accepted for up to 3 days after the deadline, but for each day late, excluding the weekends, a 5% penalty will be applied. 

Extensions: You may request an extension for an assignment, but you must ask more than 1 day before the assignment is due. Extension requests on the due date, without an excusable reason, will not be considered.

Policy for Students Who Arrive Late to Class: Please come to classes on time as it is disturbing for the lecturer and other students. Repeated lateness will result in a referral to the head of the Teaching and Learning department.

Use of Laptops or Phones in Class: Computers and iPhones are allowed in class PURELY for academic purposes (e.g. note taking, literature searching, data handling purposes). In case of other private uses such as Facebook, emails or internet surfing, it will have a very negative impact on your participation grade. The use of cell phones during class is strictly forbidden.

Academic Accommodations

Your learning experience in this class is important to me.  If you have approved academic accommodations with DIS, please make sure I receive your DIS accommodations letter within two weeks from the start of classes. If you can think of other ways I can support your learning, please don't hesitate to talk to me. If you have any further questions about your academic accommodations, contact Academic Support academicsupport@dis.dk

Academic Regulations

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

• Course Enrollment and Grading
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code

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