Study examines if we get creative ideas while walking

"Our research shows that it is not movement per se that helps us to think more flexibly," said neuroscientist Dr Barbara Handel from Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany.

Washington: A new study has examined the connection between movement and cognition from a scientific point of view.

The research has been published in the ‘Psychological Research Journal’.

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“Our research shows that it is not movement per se that helps us to think more flexibly,” said neuroscientist Dr Barbara Handel from Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany.

Instead, the freedom to make self-determined movements is responsible for it.

Accordingly, even small movements while sitting can have the same positive effects on creative thinking.

However, the researcher does not derive any concrete movement suggestions from her work, “The important thing is the freedom to move without external constraints.” It is important, she said, that movement is not suppressed or forced into regular patterns.

“Unfortunately, this happens when people focus for example on a small screen,” explained the JMU researcher.

The increased use of mobile phones and similar devices — also in the field of education at the time of the Corona pandemic — could therefore have a negative effect on cognitive processes such as creativity.

How do people perceive their environment? What effect do sensory stimuli have in the peripheral nervous system and what in the brain? What influence do body movements have on the perception of sensory input? Researchers like Barbara Handel are interested in such questions for many reasons. In the long term, their findings could contribute to a better understanding of diseases that affect body movements as well as cognitive processes.

From February 2022, the scientist will continue her research at the Neurological Clinic of Wurzburg University Hospital. There she plans to focus on the topics of Parkinson’s disease and ADHD.

Barbara Handel’s work is funded by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).