The Eureka Factor

Where do great ideas come from? What actually happens in your brain during a 'Eureka' moment? And how can we have more of them? This book reveals how sudden insights are formed in the brain, how we can increase our chances of generating them, and how they impact our thinking.

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Where do great ideas come from? What actually happens in your brain during a 'Eureka' moment? And how can we have more of them?

It has been two millenia since Archimedes supposedly first shouted 'Eureka!' as he sat in his bath. The word – Greek for ‘I have found it’ – captures the feeling we have all experienced during moments of sudden insight. Despite a century of scientific inquiry into the nature of these particular moments, their origin has remained a mystery.

Mark Beeman and John Kounios, leading experts on the neural bases of insight and creative thinking, have conducted pioneering neuroimaging research examining brain activity at and before these moments of clarity. In The Eureka Factor they reveal exactly how sudden insights are formed in the brain, how we can increase our chances of generating them, and how they impact our thinking.

Helping to unlock the mechanisms behind intuitive flashes and inspiration, this groundbreaking account not only explains the science of insight, but also describes the keys to innovation and creativity.