The brain at the Improv

Science News' Bruce Bower wrote a fascinating story this week about what might be happening within the brains of jazz musicians when they start to riff and improvise, creating their original music.

As Bowers writes, "when accomplished jazz musicians play free-form, their brain activity suggests a release of self-expression from conscious monitoring and self-censorship."

"What we think is happening is that when you're telling your own musical story, you're shutting down neural impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas," says Charles J. Limb, of Johns Hopkins Hospital, who is himself a trained jazz saxophonist. He has collaborated in studying the topic with neurologist Allen R. Braun of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders in Bethesda, Md.

This makes me wonder about children and their wellsprings of creativity. In formal schooling, and even in many out-of-school play experiences (like structured activities and certain types of electronic or interactive games) are children experiencing "conscious monitoring" and "self-censorship"? Are there certain activities (make-believe play away from parents, for example?) that let them break out of that?