Creativity and the corpus callosum

Abstract

A duality of mind is readily demonstrable in split-brain humans, and evidence is steadily accumulating that ongoing interhemispheric communication is incomplete in the intact brain. It is now certain that the corpus callosum can transfer high-level information from one hemisphere to another. When we take into account the well-established principle of hemispheric specialization, added to the impressive normality of split-brain humans in ordinary social situations, a physiologic explanation for at least some forms of creativity seems close at hand. What is required is a partial (and transiently reversible) hemispheric independence during which lateralized cognition can occur and is responsible for the dissociation of preparation from incubation. A momentary suspension of this partial independence could account for the illumination that precedes subsequent deliberate verification. From this point of view, we can understand better the opinion of Frederic Bremer, who wrote years ago that the corpus callosum subserves "the highest and most elaborate activities of the brain"--in a word, creativity.