So it seems as though the large quantity of neurons enables adolescents to find their way along winding paths that no longer readily suggest themselves to adults. The more activity was measured in the side-roads of the frontal cortex, the better the adolescents performed in the task. They use the frontal cortex more in finding creative solutions than adults do. But when it comes to the aha moment, adolescents still have easy access to side-roads, so they are more inclined to leave the beaten track. One of the reasons adolescents have such trouble planning is because the frontal cortex is still developing it’s still a winding path through the forest. But as the forest gets older and more walkers pass that way, certain paths become well-trodden and established, whereas others are taken less often and eventually disappear.Īdults use the frontal cortex like a multi-lane motorway for targeted problem-solving. Think of it as a forest where there aren’t any clear paths, so you can criss-cross your way through as you wish. This process enables the frontal cortex to work more and more efficiently. The number of neurons in the frontal cortex increases from birth and peaks in adolescence, after which the effective neurons remain in place and the superfluous ones are removed. The frontal cortex turned out to play a key role here. We then investigated which areas of the brain were active at this point when people experienced the aha moment. On average, adolescents identified the right solution more quickly than adults they were quicker to reach the aha moment. To investigate this aha moment, we got adolescents and adults to carry out tasks involving moving matchsticks to make new figures. It does have to be useful and practical, though, not just some crazy idea some sort of out-of-the-box thinking leads to an aha insight that can actually be used. What is it that makes adolescents so good at this kind of thing? At the Brain and Development Lab in Leiden we’ve been doing research into what is sometimes known as ‘aha insight’, an important component of creativity.Ī creative thought is one that leads to a new insight that hasn’t been thought of before. And yet it can be so difficult to get them interested in watching news programmes or doing their homework. No matter how carefully we adults read the manual and methodically follow all the steps – and no matter that we can draw on a wealth of experience with similar types of devices in the past – we still can’t compete with adolescents here. Give a fifteen-year-old an iPad, smartphone, or some other device, and you can bet he or she will have it all worked out much more quickly than most adults.
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