Additionally, the flash of gamma waves stemmed from the brain’s right hemisphere - an area involved in handling associations and assembling parts of a problem. In the volunteers that experienced insight, Kounios and Beeman found a distinctive spark of high gamma activity that would spike one-third of a second before volunteers consciously arrived at an answer. As soon as participants thought of a solution word, they pressed a button to indicate whether the answer had come to them suddenly (through insight), or if they used a methodical hypothesis testing approach - in other words, a trial-and-error approach. Participants were presented with three words (e.g., crab, pine, sauce), and were instructed to think of a single word that forms a familiar two-word phrase with all three (e.g., apple can join with crab, pine, and sauce to form pineapple, crabapple, and applesauce). Mark Beeman of Northwestern University used fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) brain-image scanning and EEG (electroencephalography) sensors to document the neural activity of volunteers as they worked to solve word problems. In a series of experiments, researchers Dr. Findings also suggest that we require more neural processes operating at different time scales in these moments than we use when solving a problem analytically or methodically. By looking at images of the brain and recording brainwaves of individuals in experiments that generate insight, scientists have found that these sudden sparks are the result of a complex series of brain states. Lately, though, with recent advancements and tools of cognitive neuroscience, researchers are able to explain the inner workings of the brain during moments of insight. Laboratories and psychologists have attempted to study this phenomenon using behavioral methods for nearly a century, resulting merely in speculations as to where these ideas come from and how they form. In today’s fast-paced industries, everyone is eager to foster these sparks of creativity, and it’s no wonder why: From these aha! moments come world-changing breakthroughs - from the discovery of penicillin and the invention of the microwave and safety glass to prescriptions for eyelash growth and the invention of Velcro and Post-its. But what makes these moments so mystifying is that they usually materialize abruptly, without warning and seemingly out of thin air. There are many different representations we use colloquially to describe good ideas - sparks, flashes, light-bulb moments inspirations and innovations muses and visions. Behold the proverbial “aha!” moment - a key phenomenon that emerges in a range of situations, from offering a solution to a problem or a new interpretation of a situation to more simple feats such as understanding a joke or solving a crossword puzzle.
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