Summary of Twenty-First Century Great Conversations in Art, Neuroscience and Related Therapeutics.

Juliet L King

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01428

Abstract

Transdisciplinary collaboration is the future of knowledge making in advanced post-industrial societies and there is a growing awareness that the most vexing problems we face cannot be solved by any single discipline. Best practices for complex and challenging physical and mental disorders require a multi-disciplinary approach, yet there is a void in bridging the gap between the most contemporary models. It is in this capacity that the Twenty-First Century Great Conversations in Art, Neuroscience, and Related Therapeutics serves as a missing link. It was with active minds and a collective spirit that artists, scientists, therapists, physicians, engineers, technology experts, healthcare practitioners, and researchers from across the globe transcended historical silos to explore the capacities for collaborative partnerships to influence the health of patients and the amelioration of disease. Hosted at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), presenters shared insights through didactic sessions and panel discussions aligned with three tracks led by prominent experts in their respective fields: (1) Neuroaesthetics, Anjan Chatterjee, MD; (2) Creativity and Consciousness, Arne Dietrich, PhD; and (3) Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI), Klaus Gramann, PhD. The goals for this symposium were developed from a vision which embraces cross-disciplinary intersectionality, a merging of viewpoints, and active dialogue surrounding the development of a common language with which to advance the Creative Arts Therapies and neurosciences. The goal was also to contribute to the development of a simplified roadmap to enhance and enrich the CATs with a greater understanding of neuroscience and the available technologies that can assist in research.

Highlights

With a comprehensive understanding of the neurological mechanisms involved in creative expression, Creative Arts Therapists have more power to advance and perfect such forms of therapy, establish proof of what works and what does not and create models for delivering optimal treatments to better serve our patients. This summary serves to disseminate the primary elements from the three Keynote Addresses and panel dialogue of these Great Conversations, offer integrative commentary for how the material translates to the research of the Creative Arts Therapist, and set the stage for future collaborative work in the coming years
How can art therapists distil components of the creative process so that we can speak with more scientific certainty about how and why our interventions work? If we study a distinction between a deliberate type of creativity and a flow state based on client engagement at different levels of the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC), how might this help to clarify the value of the Creative Arts Therapies (CATs) as a profession that offers evidencebased interventions? With the advancement of neuroimaging technologies like Mobile Brain/Body Imaging, we have greater capacities to “take our investigations into the wild.”
Exploring more thoroughly established clinical areas that are proven to be effective with the non-verbal therapies, or that are deficient in specific clinical symptoms that are observed, is an area of rich opportunity for transdisciplinary research for Creative Arts Therapists to use Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI)

Summary

Introduction

This summary serves to disseminate the primary elements from the three Keynote Addresses and panel dialogue of these Great Conversations, offer integrative commentary for how the material translates to the research of the Creative Arts Therapist, and set the stage for future collaborative work in the coming years. Commentary Understanding more thoroughly the connections between visual information processing and reward systems provides ample opportunity to study the nature of creative expression in clinical treatment with the addictions population.

Results

Conclusion