The Neuroscience of Creativity and Emotions

The neuroscience of creativity has grown significantly over the past several years. One aspect of creative ideation that has been relatively understudied, however, is how emotional processes—and the neural systems underlying them—shape creativity. Creativity, like its muse, can be ephemeral: vulnerable to internal and external environmental factors that spark new ideas or snuff them out, and emotions can modulate these effects. In this chapter, we review findings underscoring the critical interactions between cognitive and emotional neuromodulatory mechanisms during creative thinking, including the potential impact of mood, stress, and reward processes on known neurocognitive components of creative ideation. We further examine whether and under what circumstances such interactions can have positive or negative consequences for creativity. Lastly, we discuss how emotional task content may impact the generation of the creative product on the part of the creator. Across these domains, we synthesize this literature and propose a framework for future research that integrates brain function at the neurochemical, neuroanatomical, and systems levels with emotional aspects of creative thinking.