Creative flow as optimized processing

Evidence from brain oscillations during jazz improvisations by expert and non-expert musicians¶

Published on April 15^th, 2024 — Neuropsychologia Volume 195

“Furthermore, when flow is measured during non-creative tasks, such as solving arithmetic problems, the task is typically not freely chosen by the participants. One view presupposes that for flow to occur an individual must freely choose an activity because it is intrinsically enjoyable.”
“As in previous work (Hohnemann et al., 2022), we found flow, overall, to be associated with superior objective (judge-rated) performance. High-flow improvisations were accompanied by superior self-judged quality ratings for both high- and low-experience musicians and by superior judge-rated quality for the low-experience musicians.”