Neuroscientist Dr. Charles Limb maps musical creativity in the brain

What was going on in the brains of musical geniuses like Miles Davis or Thelonius Monk when they performed? Dr. Charles Limb has long been fascinated by the inner workings of creative minds. His research offers insights into music and the way we communicate and express ourselves. Limb is a surgeon, neuroscientist and a musician. He's the Chief of the Division of Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at University of California, San Francisco. Limb put jazz musicians in an fMRI scan, and compared brain activity between when they played memorized versus improvised music. One of the surprising findings, according to Limb: "The dominant change that we saw had to do with something called the prefrontal cortex. And this is the part of the brain in the front that really controls consciousness and self-awareness and effortful planning. It's very active throughout our days as we live as functional human beings. But in professional jazz piano players' improvisation, this part of the brain is relatively shutting itself off. That, I think, was one of the key surprising findings for me...It's not that the brain is more during creativity. In some ways, it's less. It's getting out of its way." #features #fullframe #musicandhealing Watch CGTN LIVE on your computer, tablet or mobile https://cgtnamerica.vhx.tv/videos/hd-live-broadcasts Subscribe to CGTN America on YouTube Follow CGTN America: Twitter: @cgtnamerica Facebook: @cgtnamerica Instagram: @cgtnamerica TikTok: @newstoks This material is distributed by MediaLinks TV, LLC on behalf of CCTV. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.