The Neuroscience of Creativity

Anna Abraham is a professor of psychology at the School of Social Sciences of Leeds Beckett University. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, the Salzburg Global Seminar, and the Higher Education Academy. She is also a Member of the International Society for Fiction and Fictionality Studies, the Association for Psychological Science, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, and the American Psychological Association's Division 10: Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts. Abraham edited the 2015 book Madness and Creativity: Yes, No or Maybe? and has authored numerous publications on the human imagination.

'This work is a scientific tour-de-force, which shatters the established methods of parochialism, tribalism, and solipsism that permeate scientific inquiry. Dr Abraham has re-established the normative standards of curiosity, rigor, and keen scepticism that this field so desperately needs, and so deservedly warrants. Her book is the new standard on how creativity is manifested in the human brain.' Rex Jung, University of New Mexico

• 1. What is creativity?; 2. How can creativity be assessed?; 3. Cognitive explanations of creativity; 4. Brain-based global explanations of creativity; 5. Brain-based local explanations of creativity; 6. Neuroscientific methods in the study of creativity; 7. Unique problems in the neuroscientific study of creativity; 8. Musical creativity; 9. Literary creativity; 10. Visual artistic creativity; 11. Kinesthetic creativity; 12. Scientific creativity; Afterword – from cave art to latte art.