“SCA is brainwashing us”
By Emma De Gruttola
“SCA is brainwashing us”
If today I have a casual conversation with my brain, it would look like this:
“What’s up bro?”
“Fhsjzkjkls”
“What?”
“There is too much to say, I changed. I’m a different brain now”.
My brain is right. Through our first month at the SCA, we have changed more than we think. Physiologically and mentally. We’ve got hooked by the SCA masterclasses and every day we learn how to be more creative. We are matrixed into new ways of thinking, of becoming the better version of ourselves. And according to Marc’s diabolic plan, we train our brains every day for this purpose. If we had all an MRI before the beginning of the year then after just this one month, we would have observed variations.
But how so?
There are still a lot of things to figure out about brain functions. Scientists struggle, so they divided this responsibility into different fields. But only a few researchers demystify how creative thinking modifies the brain and vice-versa.
First of all, how do these scientists define the concept of “creativity”? Coincidence or not (I don’t think so, this is all part of a plan), Marc’s definition and theirs are similar. Creativity is the ability to produce something new and adapted to a context.
Are you a lefty or a righty?
Around 2017, researchers had shaken up the way we thought about creativity and the brain’s connections. It’s a popular belief to think creative people use the left hemisphere more than the right hemisphere of the brain. But the reality is more nuanced.
To prove this theory, a team of researchers from New Mexico started an experiment. They looked into the brain of students from high school while giving them different tests. The first series of tests was “divergent thinking”: This might not ring a bell to non-SCA adepts, but it means giving the most answers from one question and drawing the most scamps out of it. Next, they had to imagine new utilisations from daily life objects. Finally, answer a questionnaire about their creative activities.
The results of the research were clear, creative people make more connections between the two hemispheres than the others. (No difference was observed between men and women by the way).
So, one myth collapsed, you need your two hemispheres to create something new. It’s a permanent exchange between them. And it’s more logical than the opposite when you think about it. If you want to come up with new, creative solutions to an issue, you have to collect dots from everything you have seen, felt, learned, and experienced before; then creating something original out of it. If we theoretically only worked our left hemisphere, we would never reach our full potential.
2 main neuronal networks involved to find THE best idea
But let’s go deeper into the analysis of “what’s going on in my brain when the SCA matrixes it to be more creative”, shall we? If you have correctly read the paragraph’s title, you have already guessed: two main neuronal networks are involved when we’re on creative process. Both in the two hemispheres, they are named “spontaneous associations” and “cognitive controls”. The first one comes at the beginning of a brainstorming. We associate everything we know from the brief we just got into our hands. But this process has no sense if we don’t control our flow. So cognitive control’s neuronal network enters in action. What do we do with these ideas? Should we dive deeper into it or changed it (kill our babies in the SCA jargon)?
For example, we had a brief two weeks ago: “name our agency”. We brainstormed around everything that makes a good impression. A lot of ideas came: a metaphor of an iceberg, a brain squatter, having flutter, or hooking people with us. But then, it was time to kill some of our babies and develop our favorite idea.
When we use a lot these two networks our brain structure changes as well. The grey matter (where the neurons/information is stocked) and white matter (where information circulates) of the brain are modified, which is also visible on an MRI.
So with practice, our two networks will get stronger and more connected to each other. This implies we’ll have better creative ideas, and faster. I’m looking forward to this! It takes time to change our brains, but we already feel good results after only one month at school.
I have to let you now, I’m applying to have an MRI, to see what my brain looks like.
On the path to being brainwashed within this incredible year,
Emma
Sources (sorry all in French. This might be your opportunity to learn a new language!)
