This episode is brought to you by the Music for Scientists album! Stream the album on major music services here: https://biglink.to/music-for-scientists. Check out the “For Your Love" music video here: https://youtu.be/YGjjvd34Cvc.
Some people are capable of concentrating in a storm of noise and motion, and some get distracted by the slightest squeak of a classmate’s chair. This has to do with our brain’s ability to filter, and not only are both entirely natural, each can boost our creativity.
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This episode is brought to you by the Music
for Scientists album. Click the link in the description to learn
more. [♪ INTRO] Some people can work in a coffee shop with
music playing and dozens of people bustling about and all sorts of smells wafting through the
air, and be totally productive. And some people get completely derailed when
they’re trying to work and their neighbor plays their music above a whisper, or starts
fidgeting. Why? Mainly, the difference has to do with sensory
gating, whic
h is your brain’s ability to filter out unnecessary sensory inputs competing
for your attention. If your brain lets in and processes a lot
of unwanted sensations, you probably have what neuroscientists call leaky, or impaired
sensory gating. And if it doesn’t, you probably have selective
sensory gating. But the good news is, no matter which type
you have, both can actually boost your creativity, just in different ways. Sensory gating can involve various senses,
from sight to smell to hearing. An
d overall, it’s kind of like a bouncer
outside a nightclub. Some bouncers have a strict door policy: “you’d
better change your shoes, mister.” And some let in, yeah, basically anyone: “come
on in. Looking good.” Overall, scientists are still trying to figure
out exactly which parts of the brain control this. But they do have some leads. Like, when it comes to filtering sounds, a
2019 study found that it starts at the ventral cochlear nucleus, or vCN. That's where the auditory nerve fibers that
e
ncode information about sound connect to the brain stem. This suggests that auditory sensory gating
begins almost as soon as someone hears something. So, ultimately, whether someone can filter
out noise while they work might just boil down to how their brain is wired. When it comes to other senses, though... the
jury is still out about mechanisms. Still, one thing we do know is that sensory
gating isn’t just about filtering out stimuli. It can also influence your ability to come
up with innovat
ive and original ideas. One study that looked into this was published
in 2015. It measured 97 test subjects’ auditory sensory
gating ability, and looked at how that correlated with their creativity. First, the participants took a test that measured
creative thinking. It asked them to finish incomplete figures
to make pictures, and also to imagine what might happen in improbable scenarios, like,
if they could fly. Then, subjects were asked to give a number
ranking to their achievement and recogni
tion levels in various creative fields, including music, dance, scientific discovery,
and visual arts. Finally, the participants sat in a sound-proof
booth while wearing headphones, and researchers played two, one millisecond-long
clicks 500 milliseconds apart. And while participants listened, their brain
activity was measured using an electroencephalogram, or EEG. In the end, people with leaky sensory gating
had the same level of neurological response to both clicks. Meanwhile, people with sele
ctive gating registered
the first click, but paid much less attention to the second. Essentially, their brains filtered it out. But here’s the really fascinating thing: The study also found that people with leaky
sensory gating had more actual, real-world creative achievements. As in, their creative work was more likely
to be widely distributed or recognized. The authors suggest that might be because
leaky sensory gaters focus on more stimuli than other people, so they’re able to make more creat
ive connections
between seemingly-unrelated things. For instance, a writer with leaky gating might
be inspired by a random conversation they overheard in a restaurant. Or a dancer might be inspired by, say, the
movement of rain on a window. That said, if you don’t have leaky sensory
gating, that doesn’t mean you can’t be creative! The same study found that people with selective
gating were more likely to exhibit divergent thinking, which is another form of creativity. Divergent thinkers are able
to generate creative
ideas by exploring many possible solutions. And the reasoning is, if you can shut out
distractions and really focus on the task in front of you, you can likely come up with these innovative
solutions more easily. So there are definitely benefits and trade-offs
to both types. If you really want to switch camps, though…
well, that’s easier said than done. Evidence shows that you can go from selective
to leaky sensory gating in some situations, but it isn’t really a skill you
can practice. Like, a 2019 study found that military service
members exposed to high-intensity blasts developed leaky sensory gating as a result of damage
to their auditory processing system. Another study published in 2016 found that
muscle fatigue could also make your sensory gating leakier… at least temporarily. Meanwhile, on the flip side, scientists are
less sure about whether you can tighten up your sensory gating. Still, just because you might not be able
to change your gating doesn’t mea
n you can’t optimize how you use it. For instance, if you think you have leaky
sensory gating, maybe it’s worth adding those noise-cancelling
headphones to your wishlist, or making sure your workspace is free of distractions. And if you have selective gating, you could
set aside time to focus on the world around you if you need inspiration. But in either case, you can still explore
and unlock your creative genius. Speaking of creativity, this episode was brought
to you by a remarkable new album
called Music for Scientists — which a prominent physicist
at CalTech calls “a soundtrack to accompany discovery”. It was written and recorded by Patrick Olson,
and was inspired by the space between human creativity and what Richard Feynman calls
“the inconceivable nature of nature.” It’s all about expanding the ways we understand
the world and ourselves. If this sounds like something you’d enjoy
listening to, you can stream Music for Scientists on all major services, or click the link below
to c
atch the music video “For Your Love”. [♪ OUTRO]
Comments
This episode is brought to you by the Music for Scientists album! Stream the album on major music services here: https://biglink.to/music-for-scientists. Check out the “For Your Love" music video here: https://youtu.be/YGjjvd34Cvc.
"Why You Can't X" First sentence: "Some people can X" Well.
As a German Engineer, i can only work properly, when precision 90's techno is being played
I can't work without music, it prevents me from getting bored and getting distracted by other things around me
For me, context matters a lot. I can be distracted by the smallest sound in some circumstances, but other times the noise helps me focus
There is no gate at all in my brain, ADHD is great, in a exam, I can hear everyone flip their page while im re-reading the question the 6th time :D
I'm more 'leaky'. I can listen to music when I'm trying to concentrate, but it should be instrumental. Lyrics seem to derail my thinking.
Being autistic, I definitely think there are situations where my sensory gating is 'leakier' or where it's more selective; when I'm hyperfixating on something, I won't hear people calling my name or most other sounds around me. But if it's something I'm less interested in, any noise (someone coughing, the buzz of lights) can be enough to distract me. I also think it's connected to general stimulation levels: if I've been over/understimulated, I'm worse at blocking things out than if I've had a good sensory day. Very interesting stuff!
I'm ADHD. Sometimes I require background noise, including music, other times it's a massive distraction. Depends on the task and my mood
As a parent who's child has toys with repeataive sounds I developed the ability to tune out the toy for survival.
judging by the comments, you should probably change the title from "You" to "Some" since you don't mean everyone, just people with less selective sensory gating
I concentrate better with music big time. Highest test score I ever got was while listening to music.
I can only listen to instrumental music when I study . Anything with lyrics makes me wanna sing along
I have ADHD. I can not be productive unless there is instrumental music involved.
I've found music helps me avoid fidgeting as much, and it helps keep my dopamine train going, so I can more easily focus on a task. ADHD be wild.
Some of these "focus" Spotify playlists are absolutely terrible for focus :p Also, nice sweater!
I must have “selective” sensory gating, IE if the person making noise or fidgeting near me is someone I don’t like, everything will annoy me 😂
There seems to be an interesting connection between focus, sensory gating and creativity. Like how people with ADHD tend (not always but often) to be creative people, and they also tend to have sensory issues. I recently found out part of the ADHD population might actually have what they call "hypokalemic sensory ovrstimulation", where low serum potassium triggers sensory overstimulation (not necessarily pathologically low potassium, just through normal fluctuation throughout the day, like after a high carb or high salt meal, or after a bout of exercise). Interestingly, this sub-population was identified thanks to an unexpected biomarker: relative resistance to the local anesthetic lidocaine, which acts on sodium-potassium channels, so this rises suspicion for this specific presentation to be a channelopathy... a peripheral issue rather than an issue in the brain itself. (Again this is only one subpopulation within the general ADHD population, not the explanation to all forms of ADHD, the neurotransmitter theory may very well still apply to many.) In other words, I just find it interesting to note that some people migh be dealing with too much input, rather than too little gating.
In my case, selective or leaky sensory gating is sooo contextual. Sometimes, I'm laser focus while the world is collapsing over me, while sometimes, I'm overly annoyed by little noises. Contextual factors that provoke those differences in sensory gating seem under regarded in this vid. We are too pigeonholed in a category while reality seems more complexe than that. But I know, short bite sized vids need that.
Music helps quiet the 500 simultaneous thoughts and focus on the task at hand. Also, cooking in a quiet kitchen is just eerie