Neurodesign: The Biology, Psychology, and Engineering of Creative Thinking and Innovation

Creative thinkingThinking, creative pervades human lifeLife. Almost every single thing with which humans surround themselves—technologyTechnology, houses, furniture, books, paintings, musicMusic, and so forth—is the productProduct of someone’s creative processProcess, creative. Even raw food that we eat, such as apples and salad, hinges on the invention of agriculture in humanity’s prehistory. While creativityCreativity is a ubiquitous phenomenon across many animalAnimal species, the impact of creativityCreativity on lifeLife forms and even thinkingThinking itself seems unparalleled in humans. This chapter discusses creative thinkingThinking, creative from the perspective of neurodesignNeurodesign, which is an interdisciplinary endeavor merging resources from three different domains: (i) design thinkingThinking, design studies on creativityCreativity, collaborationCollaboration, and innovationInnovation; (ii) neuroscienceNeuroscience; and (iii) engineeringEngineering. The chapter discusses basic principles and insights pertaining to creative productsProduct, creative, creative processesProcess, creative, creative peoplePeople, creative, and creative placesPlace, creative. In each regard, examples are given of how neuroscientific and other physiological studies enhance understandingsUnderstanding, while novel engineeringEngineering solutionsSolution are by themselves creative productsProduct, creative that can massively enhance the human scope of actionAction.