PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers using electroencephalograms found people divide into methodical problem solvers and those having sudden creative insights.
The study, published in Neurophsychologia, revealed those having sudden creative insights or -- "aha! moments"-- have a distinct pattern of brain activity, even at rest.
Lead study author, John Kounios of Drexel University, also found creative and methodical solvers exhibited different activity in areas of the brain that process visual information. The pattern of "alpha" and "beta" brainwaves in creative solvers was consistent with diffuse rather than focused visual attention.
This study showed that greater right hemisphere activity occurs even during a "resting" state in those with a tendency to solve problems by creative insight. This finding suggested that even the spontaneous thought of creative individuals, such as in daydreams, contains more "remote associations" -- processing of loose or "remote" associations between the elements of a problem in the right brain.
"Problem solving, whether creative or methodical, doesn’t begin from scratch when a person starts to work on a problem," Kounios said in a statement.
