"CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE!"

A paper published this week speculates on how by taking a simple evolutionary detour we may have accidentally wound up (or woken up) up with consciousness, creativity, and …Slade

Last week’s 3 minute read focused on focus; and how fluctuations between brain waves may shape our ability to block out distractions when we are ‘in the zone,’ whether that’s in the First Round at Augusta, the eighth row stalls at a cinema or theatre, or up close and personal in the mosh pit.

Spookily, a paper* published yesterday considers how the evolutionary development of the brain’s structural architecture may be responsible for precisely these kind of shifts between conscious and unconscious thought that allow us to sink a thirty-foot putt, immerse ourselves in an on-screen or on-stage drama, or ‘blame it on the boogie.’ 

And if this hypothesis is correct, it could have implications for our understanding of the creative processes on which all nations of The Business of Pleasure (Art, Music, Theatre, Cinema, Dance, etc.) are dependent.

According to the hypothesis:

The outermost layer of the brain, the neocortex (literally ‘new layer) ‘emerged as an advanced innovation mechanism, where its unpredictable, chaotic activity is used to generate alternative patterns.’  …The Variation Generator.’

And because these myriad variations (different thoughts, behaviours, solutions to problems) were coming so thick and fast, a control unit was needed to filter out the noise and get to the useful stuff …or as the paper puts it:

‘The process of cropping these alternatives from the chaotic neocortex and mediating them to the constrained, goal-oriented linear control system requires a serially functioning interface.’

Step forward Consciousness, not as an ‘advanced version of earlier cognitive capacities’ but as a ‘by-product or side effect of this interface, eventually expanding its influence to a wide range of cognitive and operational functions.’

Just typical, give Consciousness and inch and it takes a mile; whether that’s millions years back or twenty minutes ago when I was trying (and failing) to write a line of copy.  I feel I should wave my fist at Consciousness and shout “I know where you live!”  Only I don’t.  This recent theory suggests the Consciousness's HQ might reside in something called the claustrum, an ‘intriguing’ and ‘enigmatic’ consisting of two thin, sheet-like structures that partition the inner part of the neocortex, the insula and the basal ganglia.

(But he jury is still out on that one, Thank God!) 

‘When the neocortex first appeared it was smaller and less sophisticated than brain structures that preceded it by hundreds of millions of years. By then, basic cognitive functions like motor (movement) control, sensory perception, basic emotions, and decision-making were already performed by older brain structures. These structures, particularly the cerebellum, have been preserved in mammals. The further evolution of these structures (such as the tectum) has slowed or even receded, likely due to the neocortex taking over some of the functions. However, the cerebellum continued to grow in size and probably sophistication alongside the neocortex and most of its structures appear to have been retained.  This suggests that the exceptional evolutionary expansion of the neocortex did not come at the expense of the older control system but rather in addition to it.’

Now there is obviously nothing new about the idea of the ‘higher’ (in function and location) regions of the brain regulating the lower regions.  What I personally find interesting in this particular theory is the way it states, and/or recapitulates the tension (and struggle for resources) between maintaining ‘business as usual’ and going ‘one step beyond.’

‘In nervous systems, as in genetic systems, two opposing trends function side by side; the first aims to strengthen and stabilize already-established patterns that can cope with a variety of more or less predictable challenges, and the second provides flexibility and creativity necessary for finding solutions to new challenges. Like the dynamics of genetic variation, this flexibility is enabled largely by random ‘noise’ -neural activity that does not serve a concrete purpose and is not bound to the organisms pre-established modes of action.  From this noise, new response variations may emerge, one of which may prove useful and become a new default for similar challenges.’

Great news for the survival of the species of course.  But it quite possibly also allows us an invaluable glimpse inside some of the more mysterious ‘black box’ aspects of the creative process. The way that billions of daily interactions (and the resultant neural firings) may be sifted, at a subconscious (‘pre-conscious?) level, to provide the germ of a single idea, the spark that then breaks through the darkness into conscious thought.

And maybe also the manner in which an infinite number of possible scenes and sentences (ditto sequences and edits, musical notes and silences, brush-strokes and canvas) sometimes coalesce into a meaningful whole to provide the blueprint for a play or book, film or symphony, Ming vase or Van Gogh.

Which doesn’t mean the final piece doesn’t demand hours (or years/decades) of applied effort and (hard-won) technical dexterity.  We’re not producing pot noodles here, guys!  But we are cooking on gas, and possibly (hopefully!) to a recipe best summed up by a member of the Florentine Chapter of The Business of Pleasure, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564)

“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work.  It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”

DT 19 April 2025

*The evolution of human-type consciousness -a by-product of mammalian innovation mechanism – a preliminary hypothesis, Uzi Ben Zvi, Nataf, Israel. 17-4-25

** “Cum On Feel The Noize”, released in 1973, was Slade’s fourth number one single and the first single to reach number one in it’s first week since The Beatles “Get Back” in 1969