Flow, commonly called being in the zone, is where a person is totally engaged in performing an activity, up to the point where they are hardly self-conscious or conscious of their surroundings. What is flow from the perspective of brain functioning? One theory about it is that years of practicing a task causes the brain to develop a specialized network that produces specific ideas — for example, musical ideas — with little conscious effort.
The researchers studied 32 jazz guitarists, some highly experienced and other less so, recording high-density electroencephalograms (EEGs)(脑电图) of brain activity while they improvised (即兴演奏) to six jazz songs, accompanied by drums, bass and piano. Participants were asked to rate the intensity of their flow experience for each improvisation or “take”. Each take was also judged by four jazz experts individually to objectively find out the participants’ expertise.
Based on the participants’ ratings, the researchers found that the highly experienced musicians experienced flow more often and more intensely than musicians with low experience. When they analyzed the EEGs to see what brain regions were associated with high- and low-flow takes, they found that a high-flow state was associated with increased activity in left-sided brain areas associated with listening to and playing music. Importantly, in a high-flow state, activity decreased in frontal areas associated with conscious control or letting go.
Overall, the findings supported the “expertise-plus-release of control” hypothesis (假说) of creative flow, which has practical effects for those wanting to enter the flow state. “This study is concerned with musicians, but the findings extend to anyone wanting to be creative. If you want to be able to stream ideas fluently, then keep working on those musical scales, physics problems or whatever else you want to do creatively — computer coding, fiction writing — you name it,” said John Kounios, a corresponding author of the study. “But then, try letting go. As jazz great Charlie Parker said, ‘You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just sing.’”
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