NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF CREATIVITY: A MICROGENETIC APPROACH

Abstract

The neuropsychology of creativity is recently understood as a subdiscipline developing on the borderline of being a: (1) medical neuroscience - using clinical and experimental neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, neurobiological, neurosurgical, neurological, neuropsychiatric methods and approaches and (2) social neuroscience - using social psychology and neuropsychology, social linguistics and neurocultural studies to help disabled people. The subject of research into the neuropsychology of creativity is the relationship between creativity and the functioning of the brain (structures and neuronal connections) and the self using the individual, social and cultural mind and modelling these behaviors in relation to the biological organism and the social and cultural environment itself. Neuropsychological research of creativity is directed mainly to discover the brain mechanisms of creativity, to form the theoretical models, to elaborate the methods of diagnosis and therapy of artists with brain damage. A promising model that allows for a better understanding of the creation process, and therefore one offering better assistance to individuals who have never developed or have lost the ability to create due to brain damage, is the microgenetic approach that will be discussed in this article. To introduce the reader to these issues, a case study of an artist with brain damage is presented. It illustrates the importance of performing a syndrome analysis, supported by the neurophysiological studies (neuroimaging studies of the brain, quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG), event-related potentials (ERPs) and sLorette tomography) with the use of neuromarkers to avoid a false diagnosis. It also shows the possibilities of art therapy in the process of rebuilding the creative abilities lost as a result of brain damage, and thus the rebuilding of one's individual, social and cultural Self. However, something that is also important for artists, selected works, especially the most characteristic and significant ones, are also achieving critical recognition. It even happens that they become a part of the world's cultural heritage, are displayed at various exhibitions and are even bought to be hung in the collections of galleries acrosss the world, like in the case of the artist presented in these paper.