Notes

Freestyle rappers such as Eminem and Philadelphia's Cassidy make up and bust out rhymes on the spot — a hugely challenging art form. Now, however, researchers have learned how the brain does it.A new study finds that when rappers improvise, parts of their brains linked to motivation, organization and integration get active, while portions responsible for self-monitoring and control get quiet. The findings suggest freestyle rappers essentially shut down the parts of their brains that might disrupt their creative flow."If an athlete starts paying attention to what they're doing, how they're going to move their body to catch a ball, they'll clutch and they won't do it," said study researcher Allen Braun, the chief of the language section of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), a part of the National Institutes of Health. Freestyle rappers may face a similar challenge when making up rhymes, Braun told LiveScience.