The Mind Research Network and Charting Creativity - NYTimes.com

Charting Creativity: Signposts of a Hazy Territory

Mark Holm for The New York Times

Rex Jung at the Mind Research Network’s M.R.I. center.

Images from brain research conducted by the Mind Research Network. While intelligence and skill are associated with the fast and efficient firing of neurons in the brain, subjects who tested high in creativity had thinner white matter and connecting axons that slow nerve traffic. In these images, the green tracks show the white matter being analyzed. The yellow and red spots show where creativity corresponds with slower nerve traffic. The blue areas show where “openness to experience,” associated with creativity, corresponds with slower nerve traffic.

The question is part of a classic test for creativity, a quality that scientists are