Vandervert, Schimpf, and Liu (this issue) courageously address the big issue of creativity and its relation to the brain. It is not very common to find links to neurological functioning in the creativity literature (cf. Damasio, 1994, 1999), and, therefore, theirs is a very welcome view not only for that reason but also because they present an appealing hypothesis - which is defended with research findings - that is quite convincing. This is not the first time Vandervert made this connection between the cerebellum, working memory, and creativity, but the featured article seems to bring together the neurological ideas with behavioral studies and tests it against the example of Einstein's introspections on creative work. Vandervert et al. reason something like this: First is the idea that the cerebellum's traditional function, the coordinating and smoothing of bodily movement, can be extended to the coordination of cognitive "movements". It is interesting to note that Damasio (1994, 1999) made an analogous point about consciousness, hypothesizing that structures that were originally intended to monitor bodily processes and organs, were later in evolution used to monitor the processes of the brain itself, thus resulting in the possibility of consciousness. The idea that brain structures may gain new properties or extend their existing properties during evolution by directing existing functions to other structures is certainly a plausible mechanism.
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