Creativity = attention + imagination + the salience network

🔹Attention allows us to concentrate and make choices. Imagination takes care of what happens when our minds wander –⁠ whether it’s daydreaming, making plans, or imagining future scenarios. When we’re thinking creatively, these two systems are working in tandem –⁠ something they don’t normally do. Creative people can keep both systems active at once, seamlessly switching from attention to imagination and back. That’s exactly what you’ll need to learn to do if you want to cultivate creativity. 🔹The job of the salience network is to let you know that an idea you’ve just had is worth your attention. It also controls your ability to shift between your attention and imagination faculties. And, importantly, it also conducts repetition suppression. That means it suppresses familiar stimuli so that you experience them as normal rather than new and exciting. But in creatives, the salience network doesn’t engage in repetition suppression in the same way. That means they tend to notice beauty and novelty where others may not.