From the Club to the Lab

A scientist uncovers the roots of artistic genius by studying the minds of rappers

Eminem’s story and lyrics have inspired the hearts of many. Dr. Charles Limb, otolaryngology specialist and head of neck and surgery at Johns Hopkins, is no exception. A musician himself, Limb is the head of faculty at Johns Hopkins’ Peabody Conservatory of Music.

Last Monday evening, Coolidge Corner Theater had two very special guests. One was Dr. Charles Limb in person, and the other was Eminem on the big screen with his famous movie “8 Mile.”

As the theater filled up, Limb discussed his most recent study about his fascination with freestyle rapping. He wanted to discover how rappers are able to create such astounding lyrics right off the cuff and how their brains function while doing so.

“Artistic creativity is magical, but it’s not magic,” Limb said during his presentation. “It is a neurologic product that can be examined using rigorous scientific methods. We can study it just like we can study any other neurological process.”

JAZZING UP EXPERIMENTS

That is exactly what Limb did, although he did not start by studying rappers. He started his research with a jazz experiment with several different jazz pianists as the test subjects.

For that experiment to work, Limb created a plastic mini keyboard that would be magnetically safe and have minimal interference with the fMRI scanner, which was how they documented the changes within the brain.

“The keyboard doesn’t actually produce any sound,” Limb explained, “but instead sends out a ‘MIDI’ signal or musical instrument digital interface through the wires into the box and then into the computer, which then trigger high quality sounds of a piano.”

As the subject was put into the scanner, the keyboard was placed on his legs with attached double mirrors so he would be able to see what he’s playing while lying down.

The questions that drove this experiment, Limb said, were, “What really happens inside the brain during something that is memorized and learned?” and “What happens in the brain during something that is spontaneously generated or improvised?”

The research began by having several musicians play a memorized series of scales up and down the same scale paradigm. Then they played a series of notes, only with the right hand keeping time with a metronome.

They then incorporated the jazz paradigm. Researchers had the musicians play the same paradigm, but this time the musicians were asked to improvise the chord changes and play right off the cuff.

IMPROVISED OR MEMORIZED?

Looking over the results in the brain activity, researchers tried to separate the differences of brain activity between the improvised playing and the memorized playing. They discovered that the medial prefrontal cortex of the brain spiked on all levels during improvisation and the lateral prefrontal cortex decreased significantly in activity.

Limb said these cortexes are multifunctional areas of the brain. They host some of the most important functions of the brain that deal with self-reflection, introspection, memory and consciousness. All of these functions are seeded in the frontal lobe, and once they had distinguished which cortex turned on and which one turned off, a very interesting discovery was made.

Dr. Limb explained that the lateral prefrontal cortex was the one turning off, the cortex most involved with self-monitoring. The medial prefrontal cortex, the area that is thought to be autobiographical and expressive, was the one turning on.

“I think this does serve the purpose of helping us better understand ourselves. How can man progress in both his knowledge and learning of the world and universe around him when he has yet to fully understand himself? The ability to express ourselves through the beauty of music or art is what makes us, us,” said Peter Den, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.

As the experiment progressed, Limb said he added a new dynamic by incorporating a “trading fours” sequence, meaning two artists would “communicate” through music. One player would improvise a few bars, and then the other would respond with a few bars. Their trading of musical spectrums provided an interesting discovery.

The brain scan revealed that the musician’s left inferior frontal gyrus, or his Broca’s area, lit up during the trading fours session. The Broca’s area is involved in expressive communication, meaning that the musicians were actually communicating in a sense, or at least their brains thought they were.

“This whole notion that music is a language, well maybe there is some neurological truth to it,” Limb said.

Limb said he wanted to see if rappers’ improvisation would demonstrate the same results.

RAPPING FOR SCIENCE

Being a musical man himself, Limb created his own rap which he had nine professional rappers memorize and perform in the fMRI. While the rappers were in the machine, he asked them to freestyle a rap. Limb would give them a random key word, like “not,” “like” and “had,” and they would have to form a rap around those words.

As the results flooded in from all nine subjects, Limb found that the Broca’s area was activated during the memorized rap this time, but something incredible also happened inside the brain while they were free styling. The Broca’s area exploded with activity, as well as the rappers’ major visual areas and their cerebellum plane, which is usually involved in motor skills.

“You have a heightened brain activity when you’re doing a comparable task when that task is creative versus when that task is memorized,” Limb said.

But, he said, that was an expected result. What he didn’t expect was the number of questions that would come from one answer.

“We still have so many questions to ask, like what is creative genius? Why does the brain seek creativity? How do we acquire creativity? What factors disrupt creativity? Can creative behavior be learned? We want to get at the root of what creative genius is neurologically.”

Limb’s experiment produced some conflicting reviews.

“I’m not sure there is much gain to be made from understanding what allows artists to be creative. The knowledge doesn’t help you to appreciate art more; it doesn’t make a painting any more beautiful to know what the artists brain was doing,” said Bryson Mooso, an audience member.

“Do we study artists so that maybe we can create a drug that allows more people to be creative? If so what happens when anyone anywhere can be creative just by taking a pill?” Mooso said. “When it’s something anyone can do it’s not art, it’s not creativity. Art is something to be enjoyed, not something to be studied.”

A number of others said Limb’s research is relevant and important.

“This research is based on studying the way the brain works, which could potentially tell us a lot more than just how the brain goes about thinking of a lyric,” said Michael Schade, a junior in CAS.

“Whether or not you like the music is irrelevant, creatively this is neurologically remarkable. Hopefully within the next 10-20 years we can start producing meaningful answers to these questions,” Schade said. “Science has to catch up to art, and I believe we are taking the first steps to understanding such an incredible talent.”