Dionysian spirit
The Dionysian spirit of creativity requires a balance of two distinct drives in human beings. The Dionysian spirit provides the passion needed for the creative process, while the Apollonian spirit tempers and shapes the raw material into ideas that can be understood and used. Psychologists and innovators recognize this balance of passion and restraint.
The Dionysian spirit is closely associated with women. In ancient Greece, the god of wine, fertility, and merriment was the child of a mortal woman and an immortal god. These characteristics made him a god of paradox and enigmatic contrast.
Apollonian spirit
The Apollonian spirit of creativity is a creative force in the human soul. The human condition is one of intense emotion and extreme sensuality. It is well equipped for suffering, but the need for beauty has evolved our species. The Olympian realm emerged from this need for beauty, and it served as a transfiguring mirror of the Hellenic will. In this way, the gods justified human existence through the beauty of their creation.
The terms Apollonian and Dionysian were first used by anthropologist Ruth Benedict, who studied the cultures of the Kwakiutl and Zuni peoples. Later, they were used by Camille Paglia in her 1990 bestseller Sexual Personae. Although Paglia’s concept originated in Nietzschean thought, it differs from Nietzsche’s ideas in many ways.
Hippocampus
The hippocampus is one of the brain regions involved in memory, creativity, and imagination. Researchers believe that it is involved in combining information from past events to generate new ideas. They call this process “constructive episodic simulation” and believe it plays a crucial role in imaginative thinking. While the exact mechanisms of this process are still being studied, the study shows that the hippocampus plays a vital role in creative thought.
Creativity is a complex process. Researchers have studied it in a variety of ways, including through experiments. They have also observed correlations between the hippocampus and creativity. For example, a recent study showed that the hippocampus is involved in generating and evaluating those ideas. They found that idea generation increased activation in the hippocampus and its network of connections to frontal brain regions involved in cognitive control (i.e., the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). The hippocampus and these networks also exhibited increased communication. Hence, the hippocampus and the frontal areas involved in idea evaluation may work together to produce original ideas.
White matter
A recent study suggests that white matter in the frontal lobe is associated with creativity. Using a 3 Tesla MRI scanner, scientists studied 72 healthy young adults. The subjects were asked to complete three divergent thinking tasks. The study also measured the fractional anisotropy of their brains or FA. The authors found that subjects with lower FA had higher scores on the DT tasks. They also found that reduced FA was associated with areas of the frontal lobes associated with a higher degree of creativity.
This study also indicated that the two hemispheres of the brain communicate well, which supports the theory that white matter is essential to creativity. The study also found that people in the top 15 percent of creative capacity had more connections between the cerebral cortex hemispheres. These findings indicate that exercising regularly can increase functional connectivity between the brain regions.
