1
00:00:00,785 --> 00:00:03,258
So I am a surgeon who studies creativity,

2
00:00:03,282 --> 00:00:06,110
and I have never had a patient tell me,

3
00:00:06,134 --> 00:00:08,976
"I really want you
to be creative during surgery,"

4
00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:12,119
and so I guess
there's a little bit of irony to it.

5
00:00:12,143 --> 00:00:15,443
I will say though that,
after having done surgery a lot,

6
00:00:15,467 --> 00:00:17,677
it's similar to playing
a musical instrument.

7
00:00:17,701 --> 00:00:20,531
And for me, this deep
and enduring fascination with sound

8
00:00:20,555 --> 00:00:22,297
is what led me to both be a surgeon

9
00:00:22,321 --> 00:00:24,855
and to study the science
of sound, particularly music.

10
00:00:24,879 --> 00:00:26,928
I'm going to talk
over the next few minutes

11
00:00:26,952 --> 00:00:28,243
about my career

12
00:00:28,267 --> 00:00:30,551
in terms of how I'm able to study music

13
00:00:30,575 --> 00:00:32,609
and try to grapple
with all these questions

14
00:00:32,633 --> 00:00:34,976
of how the brain is able to be creative.

15
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,630
I've done most of this work
at Johns Hopkins University,

16
00:00:37,654 --> 00:00:40,639
and at the National Institute
of Health where I was previously.

17
00:00:40,663 --> 00:00:44,170
I'll go over some science experiments
and cover three musical experiments.

18
00:00:44,194 --> 00:00:46,250
I will start off by playing
a video for you.

19
00:00:46,274 --> 00:00:49,377
This video is of Keith Jarrett,
who's a well-known jazz improviser

20
00:00:49,401 --> 00:00:51,845
and probably the most
well-known, iconic example

21
00:00:51,869 --> 00:00:54,362
of someone who takes improvisation
to a higher level.

22
00:00:54,386 --> 00:00:57,525
And he'll improvise entire concerts
off the top of his head,

23
00:00:57,549 --> 00:00:59,954
and he'll never play it
exactly the same way again,

24
00:00:59,978 --> 00:01:01,963
so as a form of intense creativity,

25
00:01:01,987 --> 00:01:03,605
I think this is a great example.

26
00:01:03,629 --> 00:01:05,976
And so why don't we go
and click the video.

27
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:10,000
(Music)

28
00:02:01,795 --> 00:02:03,796
(Music ends)

29
00:02:03,820 --> 00:02:06,159
It's really a remarkable
thing that happens there.

30
00:02:06,183 --> 00:02:07,911
I've always as a listener, as a fan,

31
00:02:07,935 --> 00:02:09,652
I listen to that, and I'm astounded.

32
00:02:09,676 --> 00:02:11,412
I think -- how can this possibly be?

33
00:02:11,436 --> 00:02:13,727
How can the brain generate
that much information,

34
00:02:13,751 --> 00:02:15,336
that much music, spontaneously?

35
00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:17,976
And so I set out
with this concept, scientifically,

36
00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:22,351
that artistic creativity,
it's magical, but it's not magic,

37
00:02:22,375 --> 00:02:24,382
meaning that it's a product of the brain.

38
00:02:24,406 --> 00:02:26,840
There's not too many brain-dead
people creating art.

39
00:02:26,864 --> 00:02:30,495
With this notion that artistic creativity
is in fact a neurologic product,

40
00:02:30,519 --> 00:02:32,976
I took this thesis that we could study it

41
00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,114
just like we study any other
complex neurologic process,

42
00:02:36,138 --> 00:02:38,193
and there are subquestions
that I put there.

43
00:02:38,217 --> 00:02:40,603
Is it possible to study
creativity scientifically?

44
00:02:40,627 --> 00:02:42,664
And I think that's a good question.

45
00:02:42,688 --> 00:02:45,374
And I'll tell you that most
scientific studies of music,

46
00:02:45,398 --> 00:02:46,916
they're very dense,

47
00:02:46,940 --> 00:02:48,335
and when you go through them,

48
00:02:48,359 --> 00:02:50,429
it's very hard to recognize
the music in it.

49
00:02:50,453 --> 00:02:52,672
In fact, they seem to be
unmusical entirely

50
00:02:52,696 --> 00:02:54,490
and to miss the point of the music.

51
00:02:54,514 --> 00:02:56,070
This brings the second question:

52
00:02:56,094 --> 00:02:57,976
Why should scientists study creativity?

53
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,079
Maybe we're not the right people to do it.

54
00:03:00,103 --> 00:03:01,102
(Laughter)

55
00:03:01,126 --> 00:03:04,578
Well it may be, but I will say that,
from a scientific perspective,

56
00:03:04,602 --> 00:03:06,620
we talked a lot about innovation today,

57
00:03:06,644 --> 00:03:07,976
the science of innovation,

58
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,953
how much we understand
about how the brain is able to innovate

59
00:03:10,977 --> 00:03:12,221
is in its infancy,

60
00:03:12,245 --> 00:03:15,712
and truly, we know very little
about how we are able to be creative.

61
00:03:15,736 --> 00:03:17,260
I think that we're going to see,

62
00:03:17,284 --> 00:03:18,976
over the next 10, 20, 30 years,

63
00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,171
a real science of creativity
that's burgeoning

64
00:03:21,195 --> 00:03:22,396
and is going to flourish,

65
00:03:22,420 --> 00:03:24,852
Because we now have new methods
that can enable us

66
00:03:24,876 --> 00:03:27,400
to take this process
like complex jazz improvisation,

67
00:03:27,424 --> 00:03:28,798
and study it rigorously.

68
00:03:28,822 --> 00:03:30,969
So it gets down to the brain.

69
00:03:30,993 --> 00:03:32,787
All of us have this remarkable brain,

70
00:03:32,811 --> 00:03:35,266
which is poorly understood,
to say the least.

71
00:03:35,290 --> 00:03:39,488
I think that neuroscientists
have more questions than answers,

72
00:03:39,512 --> 00:03:41,714
and I'm not going
to give you answers today,

73
00:03:41,738 --> 00:03:43,099
just ask a lot of questions.

74
00:03:43,123 --> 00:03:44,630
And that's what I do in my lab.

75
00:03:44,654 --> 00:03:47,968
I ask questions about what is the brain
doing to enable us to do this.

76
00:03:47,992 --> 00:03:50,769
This is the main method that I use.
This is functional MRI.

77
00:03:50,793 --> 00:03:53,516
If you've been in an MRI scanner,
it's very much the same,

78
00:03:53,540 --> 00:03:57,455
but this one is outfitted in a special way
to not just take pictures of your brain,

79
00:03:57,479 --> 00:04:00,406
but to also take pictures
of active areas of the brain.

80
00:04:00,430 --> 00:04:02,335
The way that's done is by the following:

81
00:04:02,359 --> 00:04:04,169
There's something called BOLD imaging,

82
00:04:04,193 --> 00:04:06,592
which is Blood Oxygen
Level Dependent imaging.

83
00:04:07,281 --> 00:04:09,866
When you're in an fMRI scanner,
you're in a big magnet

84
00:04:09,890 --> 00:04:12,263
that's aligning your molecules
in certain areas.

85
00:04:12,287 --> 00:04:16,006
When an area of the brain is active,
meaning a neural area is active,

86
00:04:16,030 --> 00:04:18,268
it gets blood flow shunted to that area.

87
00:04:18,292 --> 00:04:22,642
That blood flow causes an increase
in local blood to that area

88
00:04:22,666 --> 00:04:25,649
with a deoxyhemoglobin
change in concentration.

89
00:04:25,673 --> 00:04:27,828
Deoxyhemoglobin can be detected by MRI,

90
00:04:27,852 --> 00:04:29,702
whereas oxyhemoglobin can't.

91
00:04:29,726 --> 00:04:31,680
So through this method of inference --

92
00:04:31,704 --> 00:04:34,246
and we're measuring blood flow,
not neural activity --

93
00:04:34,270 --> 00:04:37,006
we say that an area of the brain
that's getting more blood

94
00:04:37,030 --> 00:04:40,572
was active during a particular task,
and that's the crux of how fMRI works.

95
00:04:40,596 --> 00:04:44,501
And it's been used since the '90s
to study really complex processes.

96
00:04:44,525 --> 00:04:48,025
I'm going to review a study that I did,
which was jazz in an fMRI scanner.

97
00:04:48,049 --> 00:04:50,552
It was done with a colleague,
Alan Braun, at the NIH.

98
00:04:50,576 --> 00:04:52,976
This is a short video
of how we did this project.

99
00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:55,781
(Video) Charles Limb: This is a plastic
MIDI piano keyboard

100
00:04:55,805 --> 00:04:57,586
that we use for the jazz experiments.

101
00:04:57,610 --> 00:04:59,663
And it's a 35-key keyboard

102
00:04:59,687 --> 00:05:02,147
designed to fit both inside the scanner,

103
00:05:02,171 --> 00:05:03,507
be magnetically safe,

104
00:05:03,531 --> 00:05:07,373
have minimal interference
that would contribute to any artifact,

105
00:05:07,397 --> 00:05:10,317
and have this cushion
so that it can rest on the players' legs

106
00:05:10,341 --> 00:05:13,296
while they're lying down in the scanner,
playing on their back.

107
00:05:13,320 --> 00:05:16,349
It works like this --
this doesn't actually produce any sound.

108
00:05:16,373 --> 00:05:18,816
It sends out what's called
a MIDI signal --

109
00:05:18,840 --> 00:05:20,889
or a Musical Instrument
Digital Interface --

110
00:05:20,913 --> 00:05:23,574
through these wires into the box
and then the computer,

111
00:05:23,598 --> 00:05:26,533
which then trigger
high-quality piano samples like this.

112
00:05:26,557 --> 00:05:29,798
(Music)

113
00:05:33,049 --> 00:05:36,803
(Music)

114
00:05:52,333 --> 00:05:54,308
(Music ends)

115
00:05:54,332 --> 00:05:55,976
OK, so it works.

116
00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:57,976
And so through this piano keyboard,

117
00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:00,743
we have the means to take
a musical process and study it.

118
00:06:00,767 --> 00:06:03,694
So what do you do now that you have
this cool piano keyboard?

119
00:06:03,718 --> 00:06:06,163
You can't just say,
"It's great we have a keyboard."

120
00:06:06,187 --> 00:06:08,511
We have to come up
with a scientific experiment.

121
00:06:08,535 --> 00:06:10,658
The experiment
really rests on the following:

122
00:06:10,929 --> 00:06:14,573
What happens in the brain during something
that's memorized and over-learned,

123
00:06:14,597 --> 00:06:16,752
and what happens in the brain
during something

124
00:06:16,776 --> 00:06:19,050
that is spontaneously
generated, or improvised,

125
00:06:19,074 --> 00:06:20,888
in a way that's matched motorically

126
00:06:20,912 --> 00:06:23,757
and in terms of lower-level
sensory motor features?

127
00:06:23,781 --> 00:06:26,376
I have here what we call the paradigms.

128
00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,896
There's a scale paradigm, which is playing
a scale up and down, memorized,

129
00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:31,654
then there's improvising on a scale,

130
00:06:31,678 --> 00:06:33,715
quarter notes, metronome, right hand --

131
00:06:33,739 --> 00:06:35,310
scientifically very safe,

132
00:06:35,334 --> 00:06:37,207
but musically really boring.

133
00:06:37,231 --> 00:06:40,202
Then there's the bottom one,
which is called the jazz paradigm.

134
00:06:40,226 --> 00:06:42,630
So we brought professional
jazz players to the NIH,

135
00:06:42,654 --> 00:06:45,607
and we had them memorize
this piece of music on the lower-left,

136
00:06:45,631 --> 00:06:47,449
which is what you heard me playing --

137
00:06:47,473 --> 00:06:49,966
and we had them improvise
to the same chord changes.

138
00:06:49,990 --> 00:06:52,198
And if you can hit
that lower-right sound icon,

139
00:06:52,222 --> 00:06:55,050
that's an example
of what was recorded in the scanner.

140
00:06:55,074 --> 00:06:58,804
(Music)

141
00:07:19,804 --> 00:07:21,805
(Music ends)

142
00:07:21,829 --> 00:07:24,245
In the end, it's not the most
natural environment,

143
00:07:24,269 --> 00:07:26,175
but they're able to play real music.

144
00:07:26,199 --> 00:07:28,170
And I've listened to that solo 200 times,

145
00:07:28,194 --> 00:07:29,371
and I still like it.

146
00:07:29,395 --> 00:07:31,782
And the musicians
were comfortable in the end.

147
00:07:31,806 --> 00:07:33,630
We first measured the number of notes.

148
00:07:33,654 --> 00:07:36,311
Were they playing more notes
when they were improvising?

149
00:07:36,335 --> 00:07:37,925
That was not what was going on.

150
00:07:37,949 --> 00:07:39,934
And then we looked at the brain activity.

151
00:07:39,958 --> 00:07:41,766
I will try to condense this for you.

152
00:07:41,790 --> 00:07:45,270
These are contrast maps that are showing
subtractions between what changes

153
00:07:45,294 --> 00:07:48,390
when you're improvising
vs. when you're doing something memorized.

154
00:07:48,414 --> 00:07:51,199
In red is an area that's active
in the prefrontal cortex,

155
00:07:51,223 --> 00:07:52,682
the frontal lobe of the brain,

156
00:07:52,706 --> 00:07:54,885
and in blue is this area
that was deactivated.

157
00:07:54,909 --> 00:07:57,785
So we had this focal area
called the medial prefrontal cortex

158
00:07:57,809 --> 00:07:59,196
that went way up in activity.

159
00:07:59,220 --> 00:08:02,450
We had this broad patch of area
called the lateral prefrontal cortex

160
00:08:02,474 --> 00:08:03,999
that went way down in activity,

161
00:08:04,023 --> 00:08:05,511
I'll summarize that for you.

162
00:08:05,535 --> 00:08:07,643
These are multifunctional
areas of the brain,

163
00:08:07,667 --> 00:08:09,822
these are not the jazz areas of the brain.

164
00:08:09,846 --> 00:08:11,774
They do a whole host of things

165
00:08:11,798 --> 00:08:13,657
that have to do with self-reflection,

166
00:08:13,681 --> 00:08:16,041
introspection, working memory etc.

167
00:08:16,065 --> 00:08:18,552
Really, consciousness is seated
in the frontal lobe.

168
00:08:18,576 --> 00:08:20,610
But we have this combination

169
00:08:20,634 --> 00:08:24,083
of an area that's thought to be involved
in self-monitoring, turning off,

170
00:08:24,107 --> 00:08:26,570
and this area that's thought
to be autobiographical,

171
00:08:26,594 --> 00:08:28,129
or self-expressive, turning on.

172
00:08:28,153 --> 00:08:30,224
We think, at least in this preliminary --

173
00:08:30,248 --> 00:08:33,001
it's one study; it's probably wrong,
but it's one study --

174
00:08:33,025 --> 00:08:34,064
(Laughter)

175
00:08:34,088 --> 00:08:36,819
we think that at least
a reasonable hypothesis

176
00:08:36,843 --> 00:08:38,004
is that, to be creative,

177
00:08:38,028 --> 00:08:40,904
you should have this weird dissociation
in your frontal lobe.

178
00:08:40,928 --> 00:08:43,452
One area turns on,
and a big area shuts off,

179
00:08:43,476 --> 00:08:46,414
so that you're not inhibited,
you're willing to make mistakes,

180
00:08:46,438 --> 00:08:48,606
so that you're not constantly
shutting down

181
00:08:48,630 --> 00:08:50,555
all of these new generative impulses.

182
00:08:50,579 --> 00:08:54,024
Now a lot of people know that music
is not always a solo activity --

183
00:08:54,048 --> 00:08:55,768
sometimes it's done communicatively.

184
00:08:55,792 --> 00:08:56,976
The next question was:

185
00:08:57,000 --> 00:08:59,572
What happens when musicians
are trading back and forth,

186
00:08:59,596 --> 00:09:01,209
something called "trading fours,"

187
00:09:01,233 --> 00:09:04,056
which is something they do
normally in a jazz experiment.

188
00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:05,493
So this is a 12-bar blues,

189
00:09:05,517 --> 00:09:07,626
and I've broken it
down into four-bar groups,

190
00:09:07,650 --> 00:09:09,462
so you would know how you would trade.

191
00:09:09,486 --> 00:09:11,772
We brought a musician
into the scanner, same way,

192
00:09:11,796 --> 00:09:13,208
had them memorize this melody

193
00:09:13,232 --> 00:09:15,798
then had another musician
out in the control room

194
00:09:15,822 --> 00:09:17,791
trading back and forth interactively.

195
00:09:17,815 --> 00:09:20,439
So this is a musician, Mike Pope,

196
00:09:20,463 --> 00:09:23,549
one of the world's best bassists
and a fantastic piano player.

197
00:09:23,573 --> 00:09:29,832
(Music)

198
00:09:29,856 --> 00:09:32,222
He's now playing the piece
that we just saw

199
00:09:32,246 --> 00:09:33,976
a little better than I wrote it.

200
00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:35,766
(Video) CL: Mike, come on in.

201
00:09:35,790 --> 00:09:37,560
Mike Pope: May the force be with you.

202
00:09:37,584 --> 00:09:39,350
Nurse: Nothing in your pockets, Mike?

203
00:09:39,374 --> 00:09:40,917
MP: No. Nothing's in my pockets.

204
00:09:50,577 --> 00:09:53,355
CL: You have to have the right
attitude to agree to do it.

205
00:09:53,379 --> 00:09:54,635
(Laughter)

206
00:09:54,659 --> 00:09:56,474
It's kind of fun, actually.

207
00:09:56,498 --> 00:09:58,097
(Music)

208
00:09:58,121 --> 00:09:59,820
Now we're playing back and forth.

209
00:09:59,844 --> 00:10:02,056
He's in there.
You can see his legs up there.

210
00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:03,422
(Music)

211
00:10:03,446 --> 00:10:06,636
And then I'm in the control room here,
playing back and forth.

212
00:10:06,660 --> 00:10:13,660
(Music)

213
00:10:16,130 --> 00:10:17,280
(Music ends)

214
00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,344
(Video) Mike Pope:
This is a pretty good representation

215
00:10:21,368 --> 00:10:23,152
of what it's like.

216
00:10:23,176 --> 00:10:25,176
And it's good that it's not too quick.

217
00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:27,779
The fact that we do it over and over again

218
00:10:27,803 --> 00:10:31,073
lets you acclimate to your surroundings.

219
00:10:32,033 --> 00:10:34,691
So the hardest thing for me
was the kinesthetic thing,

220
00:10:34,715 --> 00:10:37,976
looking at my hands through two mirrors,

221
00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:39,976
laying on my back,

222
00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:42,678
and not able to move at all
except for my hand.

223
00:10:42,702 --> 00:10:44,574
That was challenging.

224
00:10:44,598 --> 00:10:45,748
But again --

225
00:10:46,952 --> 00:10:49,738
there were moments, for sure --

226
00:10:49,762 --> 00:10:50,763
(Laughter)

227
00:10:50,787 --> 00:10:55,150
there were moments of real, honest-to-God
musical interplay, for sure.

228
00:10:55,786 --> 00:10:57,788
CL: At this point,
I'll take a few moments.

229
00:10:57,812 --> 00:10:59,693
So what you're seeing here --

230
00:10:59,717 --> 00:11:01,794
and I'm doing a cardinal sin in science,

231
00:11:01,818 --> 00:11:03,628
which is to show you preliminary data.

232
00:11:03,652 --> 00:11:05,405
This is one subject's data.

233
00:11:05,429 --> 00:11:07,176
This is, in fact, Mike Pope's data.

234
00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:08,676
So what am I showing you here?

235
00:11:08,700 --> 00:11:12,811
When he was trading fours with me,
improvising vs. memorized,

236
00:11:12,835 --> 00:11:15,584
his language areas lit up,
his Broca's area,

237
00:11:15,608 --> 00:11:17,670
in the inferior frontal gyrus on the left.

238
00:11:17,694 --> 00:11:19,603
He had it also homologous on the right.

239
00:11:19,627 --> 00:11:22,786
This is an area thought to be
involved in expressive communication.

240
00:11:22,810 --> 00:11:24,938
This whole notion
that music is a language --

241
00:11:24,962 --> 00:11:27,261
maybe there's a neurologic
basis to it after all,

242
00:11:27,285 --> 00:11:30,639
and we can see it when two musicians
are having a musical conversation.

243
00:11:30,663 --> 00:11:32,636
So we've done this on eight subjects now,

244
00:11:32,660 --> 00:11:34,589
and we're getting all the data together,

245
00:11:34,613 --> 00:11:37,438
hopefully we'll have something
to say about it meaningfully.

246
00:11:37,462 --> 00:11:40,705
Now when I think about improvisation
and the language, what's next?

247
00:11:40,729 --> 00:11:42,976
Rap, of course, rap -- freestyle.

248
00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:45,747
I've always been fascinated by freestyle.

249
00:11:45,771 --> 00:11:47,284
And let's play this video.

250
00:11:47,308 --> 00:11:50,146
(Video) Mos Def: Brown skin I be,
standing five-ten I be

251
00:11:50,170 --> 00:11:52,192
Rockin' it when I be, in your vicinity

252
00:11:52,216 --> 00:11:55,236
Whole-style synergy, recognize symmetry

253
00:11:55,260 --> 00:11:57,594
Go and try to injure me,
broke 'em down chemically

254
00:11:57,618 --> 00:12:00,047
Ain't the number 10 MC,
talk about how been I be

255
00:12:00,071 --> 00:12:02,469
Styled it like Kennedy,
late like a 10 to three

256
00:12:02,493 --> 00:12:05,311
When I say when I be,
girls say bend that key cut

257
00:12:05,335 --> 00:12:07,153
CL: So there's a lot of analogy

258
00:12:07,177 --> 00:12:09,633
between what takes place
in freestyle rap and jazz.

259
00:12:09,657 --> 00:12:12,574
There are a lot of correlates
between the two forms of music,

260
00:12:12,598 --> 00:12:15,045
I think, in different time periods,
in lot of ways,

261
00:12:15,069 --> 00:12:17,900
rap serves the same social function
that jazz used to serve.

262
00:12:17,924 --> 00:12:19,817
So how do you study rap scientifically?

263
00:12:19,841 --> 00:12:22,976
And my colleagues think I'm crazy,
but I think it's very viable.

264
00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:24,227
This is what you do:

265
00:12:24,251 --> 00:12:26,998
You have a freestyle artist come
and memorize a rap

266
00:12:27,022 --> 00:12:28,243
that you write for them,

267
00:12:28,267 --> 00:12:31,699
that they've never heard before,
and then you have them freestyle.

268
00:12:31,723 --> 00:12:34,141
So I told my lab members
that I would rap for TED,

269
00:12:34,165 --> 00:12:35,807
and they said, "No, you won't."

270
00:12:35,831 --> 00:12:37,034
And then I thought --

271
00:12:37,058 --> 00:12:38,374
(Laughter)

272
00:12:38,398 --> 00:12:44,124
(Applause)

273
00:12:44,148 --> 00:12:45,428
But here's the thing.

274
00:12:45,452 --> 00:12:48,353
With this big screen,
you can all rap with me. OK?

275
00:12:48,377 --> 00:12:50,221
So what we had them do

276
00:12:50,245 --> 00:12:52,841
was memorize this lower-left
sound icon, please.

277
00:12:52,865 --> 00:12:55,758
This is the control condition.
This is what they memorized.

278
00:12:55,782 --> 00:12:57,815
Computer: Memory, thump.

279
00:12:57,839 --> 00:12:59,976
CL: Thump of the beat in a known repeat

280
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,976
Rhythm and rhyme, they make me complete

281
00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:05,096
The climb is sublime when I'm on the mic

282
00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:07,676
Spittin' rhymes that hit you
like a lightning strike

283
00:13:07,700 --> 00:13:08,864
Computer: Search.

284
00:13:08,888 --> 00:13:11,232
CL: I search for the truth
in this eternal quest

285
00:13:11,256 --> 00:13:13,986
My passion's not fashion,
you can see how I'm dressed

286
00:13:14,010 --> 00:13:15,976
Psychopathic words in my head appear

287
00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:18,238
Whisper these lyrics only I can hear

288
00:13:18,262 --> 00:13:19,434
Computer: Art.

289
00:13:19,458 --> 00:13:22,088
CL: The art of discovering
and that which is hovering

290
00:13:22,112 --> 00:13:23,976
Inside the mind of those unconfined

291
00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:26,976
All of these words keep
pouring out like rain

292
00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,735
I need a mad scientist to check my brain

293
00:13:29,759 --> 00:13:31,066
Computer: Stop.

294
00:13:31,090 --> 00:13:38,090
(Applause)

295
00:13:40,270 --> 00:13:42,444
I guarantee you
that will never happen again.

296
00:13:42,468 --> 00:13:44,409
(Laughter)

297
00:13:44,433 --> 00:13:46,621
So now, what's great
about these free-stylers,

298
00:13:46,645 --> 00:13:48,507
they will get cued different words.

299
00:13:48,531 --> 00:13:49,975
They don't know what's coming,

300
00:13:49,999 --> 00:13:51,915
but they'll hear something off the cuff.

301
00:13:51,939 --> 00:13:53,348
Go hit that right sound icon,

302
00:13:53,372 --> 00:13:56,092
there will be cued three square words:
like, not and head.

303
00:13:56,116 --> 00:13:58,270
He doesn't know what's coming.
Computer: Like.

304
00:13:58,294 --> 00:14:00,064
Freestyler: I'm like some kind of

305
00:14:00,088 --> 00:14:02,317
extraterrestrial, celestial scene

306
00:14:02,341 --> 00:14:05,178
Back in the days, I used to sit
in pyramids and meditate

307
00:14:05,202 --> 00:14:07,375
With two microphones -- Computer: Head

308
00:14:07,399 --> 00:14:08,733
hovering over my head

309
00:14:08,757 --> 00:14:10,120
See if I could still listen,

310
00:14:10,144 --> 00:14:11,431
spittin' off the sound

311
00:14:11,455 --> 00:14:12,640
See what you grinning

312
00:14:12,664 --> 00:14:15,089
I teach the children
in the back of the classroom

313
00:14:15,113 --> 00:14:17,510
About the message of apocalyptical

314
00:14:17,534 --> 00:14:18,694
Computer: Not.

315
00:14:18,718 --> 00:14:21,346
Not really though,
'cause I've got to keep it simple

316
00:14:21,370 --> 00:14:22,976
instrumental

317
00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:25,976
Detrimental playing Super Mario

318
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:29,153
boxes [unclear] hip hop

319
00:14:29,177 --> 00:14:30,597
Computer: Stop.

320
00:14:30,621 --> 00:14:32,932
CL: It's an incredible
thing that's taking place.

321
00:14:32,956 --> 00:14:35,182
It's doing something
neurologically remarkable.

322
00:14:35,206 --> 00:14:37,522
Whether or not you like
the music is irrelevant.

323
00:14:37,546 --> 00:14:39,947
Creatively speaking,
it's just a phenomenal thing.

324
00:14:39,971 --> 00:14:42,487
This is a short video
of how we do this in a scanner.

325
00:14:42,511 --> 00:14:44,026
[fMRI of Hip-Hop Rap]

326
00:14:44,050 --> 00:14:45,186
(Laughter)

327
00:14:45,210 --> 00:14:46,984
(Video) CL: We're here with Emmanuel.

328
00:14:47,008 --> 00:14:49,314
CL: That was recorded
in the scanner, by the way.

329
00:14:49,338 --> 00:14:51,447
(Video) CL: That's Emmanuel
in the scanner.

330
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:54,000
He's just memorized a rhyme for us.

331
00:14:55,042 --> 00:14:57,725
[Control Condition Memorized Verses]

332
00:14:57,749 --> 00:14:59,976
Emmanuel: Top of the beat with no repeat

333
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:02,976
Rhythm and rhyme make me complete

334
00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,976
Climb is sublime when I'm on the mic

335
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,774
Spittin' rhymes that'll hit you
like a lightning strike

336
00:15:08,798 --> 00:15:09,956
Computer: Search.

337
00:15:09,980 --> 00:15:12,240
I search for the truth
in this eternal quest

338
00:15:12,264 --> 00:15:14,840
I'm passing on fashion;
you can see how I'm dressed

339
00:15:14,864 --> 00:15:17,927
CL: I'm going to stop that there;
so what do we see in his brain?

340
00:15:17,951 --> 00:15:19,609
This is four rappers' brains.

341
00:15:19,633 --> 00:15:21,669
And we do see language areas lighting up,

342
00:15:21,693 --> 00:15:22,976
but then, eyes closed --

343
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,313
when you are freestyling vs. memorizing,

344
00:15:26,337 --> 00:15:28,491
you've got major visual areas lighting up.

345
00:15:28,515 --> 00:15:32,204
You've got major cerebellar activity,
which is involved in motor coordination.

346
00:15:32,228 --> 00:15:35,584
You have heightened brain activity
when you're doing a comparable task,

347
00:15:35,608 --> 00:15:38,566
when that one task is creative
and the other task is memorized.

348
00:15:38,590 --> 00:15:41,374
It's very preliminary,
but I think it's kind of cool.

349
00:15:41,398 --> 00:15:43,706
To conclude, we've got
a lot of questions to ask,

350
00:15:43,730 --> 00:15:46,635
and like I said, we'll ask questions
here, not answer them.

351
00:15:46,659 --> 00:15:50,110
But we want to get at the root
of what is creative genius neurologically,

352
00:15:50,134 --> 00:15:52,691
and I think, with these methods,
we're getting close.

353
00:15:52,715 --> 00:15:55,018
And I think, hopefully
in the next 10, 20 years,

354
00:15:55,042 --> 00:15:56,939
you'll see real, meaningful studies

355
00:15:56,963 --> 00:15:59,976
that say science has to catch up to art,

356
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,388
and maybe we're starting now to get there.

357
00:16:02,412 --> 00:16:04,410
Thank you for your time, I appreciate it.

358
00:16:04,434 --> 00:16:08,442
(Applause)