This article speculates that less deactivated neurons during diffuse thinking like mindfulness could promote creativity. It suggests that when not actively focusing on a single thought, more neural connections may form between distant concepts. This could allow for novel combinations that feel more creative. Emptying working memory more quickly may also support this by facilitating new associations between ideas that arise. However, the article notes these are just speculative ideas about how neural processes could potentially support creativity.

1. 11/18/2020 The Role of (in)Active Neurons in Creativity | by John von Neumann II, Polymath | Psychology, Neuroscience, and Theories | Nov, 2020 …
https://medium.com/psychology-neuroscience-and-theories/the-role-of-in-active-neurons-in-creativity-71169061c673 1/4
NEUROSCIENCE
The Role of (in)Active Neurons in Creativity
Less deactivated neurons → higher semantic distances → more creativity?
John von Neumann II, Polymath
Nov 18 · 2 min read
This image shows main regions of the default mode network (yellow) and connectivity between the regions
color-coded by structural traversing direction (xyz → rgb). By Andreashorn — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34327919
Everything written in the following is speculative.

2. 11/18/2020 The Role of (in)Active Neurons in Creativity | by John von Neumann II, Polymath | Psychology, Neuroscience, and Theories | Nov, 2020 …
https://medium.com/psychology-neuroscience-and-theories/the-role-of-in-active-neurons-in-creativity-71169061c673 2/4
hen staring at an object e.g. an extinguisher, all kinds of neurons activate
while, simultaneously, some of these neurons gets deactivated (e.g. via top-
down regulation or lateral inhibition).
The neurons that are deactivated are the ones not representing the object, in this case
the extinguisher.
These deactivated neurons also don’t appear in your consciousness or working memory.
This is also the case when imagining something.
Less deactivated neurons → more creativity?
Now, here’s the interesting thought I had: When engaging in something like
mindfulness, you don’t try to actively focus on something. Things appear in your
consciousness and quickly disappear (that’s also one of the advantages of
consciousness: the ability to think longer about things).
his, in turn, could make your brain deactivate less neurons, which in turn might
allow for signals to propagate farther. This could promote the synthesis of
concepts that have a much higher semantic distance, which one could experience as
heightened creativity.
This is the case during diffuse mode/thinking.
For visualization of the diffuse vs. focused thinking:
di use mode - Google Search
learner spot mode master tough subjects pinball machine sensor
focused thinking 3d spot learning diffuse thinking…
www.google.com
Empty working memory
nother feature that could potentially aid in a heightened experience of creativity,
is that when you don’t actively focus on a thought, it quickly dissipates (out of
W
T
A

3. 11/18/2020 The Role of (in)Active Neurons in Creativity | by John von Neumann II, Polymath | Psychology, Neuroscience, and Theories | Nov, 2020 …
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your working memory) and gets replaced by another thought.
More specifically, long-term working memory level 2 and 3 are quickly emptied and
resupplied by level 1.[1]
Page 1 of 7
The Role of Long-Term Working Memory and
Template Theory in Contemporary Expertise
Research
Peter F. Delaney
Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at
Greensboro
Correspondence:
p_delane@uncg.edu
Abstract
Long-term working memory (LT-WM) theory is a 1995 framework for understanding h
skills to select relevant information, encode it into episodic long-term memory, and th
later time by regenerating those meaningful cues. I review the historical context in wh
proposed, including the belief that interference made long-term memory unsuitable fo
needs of working memory, and the changing state of working memory theories in the
describe a competing account called template theory that proposes that experts can
kinds of information in episodic LTM using slotted schemas. Next, I assess some of t
the LT-WM theory and template theory, suggesting critical areas for further research.
generate adequate predictive models based on LT-WM, and to compare predictions t
fully understand how working memory functions in various areas of expertise. Anothe
how changing conceptions of working memory capacity should alter our views of the
and to update the theory’s predictions with contemporary findings.
Keywords
Expertise, long-term working memory, template theory
Introduction
More than 20 years ago, Ericsson and Kintsch
(1995) proposed a major theory about how
links between learned ite
regenerated to recover th
Page 1 / 7

4. 11/18/2020 The Role of (in)Active Neurons in Creativity | by John von Neumann II, Polymath | Psychology, Neuroscience, and Theories | Nov, 2020 …
https://medium.com/psychology-neuroscience-and-theories/the-role-of-in-active-neurons-in-creativity-71169061c673 4/4
https://www.journalofexpertise.org/articles/volume1_issue3/JoE_2018_1_3_Delaney.pdf
Afterword
These speculations I, ironically, had while doing
mindfulness.
Related article:
How Construal Level Theory Will Make You Learn Faster
And how to prioritize to speed up your learning
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