How Our Brain Works While We Are Being Creative

How Our Brain Works While We Are Being Creative

How Our Brain Works While We Are Being Creative

The human brain is simply astonishing; its complexity and abilities are are only just becoming understood, and its capacity for development and the expansion of its capabilities are being shown to be almost limitless.

At the heart of it lies a huge conundrum. People have witnessed the “gray matter” that makes up the brain; they have dissected it, cut it up, examined it and microscopically analyzed it - but in all this research and development activity nobody has seen that most elusive of things; nobody has ever seen a “thought.”

Thoughts are at the heart of what the brain does. Thoughts are what enable us to tie shoelaces, drive cars, pilot aeroplanes, write essays; without thoughts we are simply biological shells, and as good as useless.

Recent developments in scanning techniques with eye tracking, facial coding, voice analysis, skin conductance and other biometric indicators, fMRI, CAT, PET and such systems, have increased our understanding of the way that the brain assimilates and manages the data. This applies to both input, and the resultant output coming from it, after churning the intake. It is fascinating stuff.

We at Pro Custom Writing are in the business of words, for instance. We make our living from essays, papers, and other written projects; all of which rely on the brain being able to create and organize thoughts.

Recent research has harnessed the power of brain scanning technology so that, for the first time, the way in which the brain reacts to certain stimuli can be seen, in real time.

A company called Sharethrough, together with Nielson Neuro, devised an experiment to see how the brain used words. It used a control of 226 people and EEG technology to scan the voltage differences within the brain cortex when a subject was given certain words to consider. The idea was to understand how, in this case, advertisers could find the words which appeared to glean the best responses from the subjects. The ultimate aim being to discover “key” words which cause activation or actionable results when used.

The words that were used were slanted towards those which were considered to cause emotional engagement, ie a word which creates a better than average interest in a message, whether that interest is a conscious one or is subliminal. The theory is that a well-constructed advertisement that used all of the emotional keywords and prompts would be irresistible to a consumer.

The research found that 1,072 words - which they christened “Context Words” - in particular, increased the subject’s interest and attention to a specific message using the brain's response and the correlation of this and the word choice used.

These context words were further split into “motion words,” “space words,” “time words,” and, “insight words.”

Motion and space words are useful to assimilate something occurring; enter, appear, arrive, replace.

Time words are used for pinpointing a variable in context; prior, long, fast, after.

Insight words give clarity; think, inform, admit, closure.

This research is so new that the scientists are still analyzing the results, but the early indications are that the context words discovered are triggers of a deeper emotional response and engagement than other words which might have been considered. Happily ever after, and once upon a time are examples of some of these words in use.

So much for advertising - what about the application in everyday use for us as students? Creative writing is, of its very nature, a subjective thing.

Two people can read the same book and with one it will resonate and with the other it will leave the reader cold. In writing an essay at college for which you want to gain maximum marks and kudos you want to be able to structure it in such a way that it will provide motivation for the reader to engage, and react, and create a bond or empathy, with the writer - which, ultimately, leads to them liking your work and awarding you a higher grade!

Sound like a plan?

If it works in advertising, (and the millions of dollars spent on this research must have some grounding in fact, or companies would not spend vast sums on research in these fields) then could it not work for you in constructing your essays?

Why not try it out - create an essay on a topic of 500 words. In one use any old wording; your usual form and construction. In the second, use as many context words as you can, without making the writing seem “over the top.” Then ask a friend to read them both and tell you which they like better. You might be surprised at the result …

If you need help with essays, papers or any other aspect of coursework or college assignments, we, at writers-corp.net , are experts at drafting work which gains the grades that you need - give us a call or check out our website today - and see what we can do for you