Abstract
One of the defining elements of jazz is the ability to improvise. The neuroscience of jazz improvisation has shown promising results for understanding domain-specific and domain-general processes of creativity. However, until date no previous studies have examined how different modes of improvisation (musical creativity) evolve over time and which cognitive mechanisms are responsible for different stages of musical creation. Here, we used fMRI to measure for the first time the dynamic neural substrates of musical creativity in 16 skilled jazz pianists while they improvised freely (iFreely), and by melody (iMelody), and contrasted with resting-state. We used the leading eigenvector dynamics analysis (LEiDA) to explore the whole-brain dynamics underlying spontaneous musical creation. Our results reveal a substate comprising areas of the dorsal default mode (DMN), the left executive control (ECN), the anterior salience, language and precuneus networks with significantly higher probability of occurrence in iFreely than in iMelody. In addition, iFreely is also linked to an increased prevalence and dynamic attachment to this substate and to a “global” substate. Such indicates that a more free mode of improvisation (iFreely) requires an increased dynamic convergence to networks comprising brain areas involved in processes linked to creativity (generation, evaluation, prediction, and syntactic processing). iMelody, a more constrained mode of improvisation involves a higher recurrence of brain regions involved in auditory and reward processes. This study brings new insights into the large-scale brain mechanisms supporting and promoting the complex process of creativity, specifically in the context of music improvisation in jazz.