It’s no surprise that it takes serious quick thinking and creativity to be able to come up with lyrics on the fly, but new scientific research shows that it actually takes a whole different part of the brain.
According to the science journal Nature, neuroscientists in Bethesda, Md., had 12 different rappers freestyle in a functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, machine. They also had the hip-hoppers recite a set of lyrics they were asked to memorize in advance.
By comparing how the brain functioned during freestyling — which the researchers chose because it's “a multidimensional form of creativity at the interface of music and language" — as compared with reciting lyrics from memory, they could see which areas of the brain are used during creative improvisation.
The results are fascinating: during improvisation, the artists had lower activity in part of their frontal lobe called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and increased activity in a different area called the medial prefrontal cortex.
The scientists also found that while freestyling, the musicians' usual executive control was bypassed, and motor control was directed by other mechanisms — which might be why rappers can come up with rhymes and deliver them on the fly.
“We think what we see is a relaxation of ‘executive functions’ to allow more natural de-focused attention and uncensored processes to occur that might be the hallmark of creativity,” says Allen Braun, one of the lead scientists, who believes the research may also apply to other creative fields, including science itself.
He says the findings are somewhat controversial, because other studies have actually shown an increase in front lobe activity during creativity – but he says they used different forms of creative activities, which may explain the varied results.
University of New Mexico neuropsychologist Rex Jung has also looked at the link between brain structures and creativity, and is excited about the Bethesda team’s findings.
He says the research helps to explain why some musicians feel the music “comes to them” rather than arriving through conscious thought: because the lateral prefrontal regions of the brain are less involved.
“That’s kind of the nature of that type of improvisation,” says co-author Michael Eagle, who raps under the name Open Mike Eagle. “Even as people who do it, we’re not 100 percent sure of where we’re getting improvisation from.”
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